It's Been A While
by ariaadne
Summary: Olivia is the unwanted daughter of Coriolanus Snow, the president of Panem. She is the best friend of Cato, who goes into the 74th annual Hunger Games. What happens when she is forced to watch Cato die and forced to go against her father?
1. Chapter 1

It's amazing how much of your memory can stay with you if they're about someone you love. Good memories or bad, it goes both ways.

It all started the day my father sent me to District Two when I was six. My mother just died in an accident, an accident that I was in. My father used to always tell me that the accident was my fault. And sadly, I believed him. Although a lot of people tell me that I was lucky to have survived, sometimes I wish I was like my mother, dead.

My main injury was my head and my hip. Thankfully, my hip was quick to heal, but it was the exact opposite with my head. I used to lose my memory two days, then eventually it got better. I guess it's true then, that time heals all wounds. Now I only lose my memory every now and then, but it's still hard.

My father sent me to District 2 because he said he couldn't stand to be in the same house as the person who killed the love of his life. I used to believe him, but Cato said that it was just because I reminded him too much of her. At first I didn't believe him because she was beautiful, and I was just an unwanted six year-old. I still don't believe him, but somehow, I see some resemblance. We have the same eye, hair and skin color, but it all stops there. She was very thin, whereas I have more muscle. She was always clean and proper, whereas I was always messy and had close to no manners at all.

When I first arrived in District 2, I was instructed to go to the hospital. I followed, hoping to not be such a burden. It was already hard for everybody, losing someone they loved, my mother. She was very thoughtful and kind, visiting each District every month to see how they were doing, but she was also very oblivious. She didn't know what was happening, how much they were suffering.

"Hi, I'm Cato", I heard someone say, interrupting me from my thoughts. I looked around, not seeing anyone. "Over here", I heard it talking again, it's voice barely audible. I saw something move around behind me, and when I looked, I realized it was someone, not something.

When I turned around, I saw a little boy with eyes as blue as the sky. They looked a little bloodshot, like he had been crying. A lot. In fact, his eyes were just a few shades lighter than the blood on his arm. He was taller than me, and looked just a little bit older too. He was only about seven or six, but he looked really strong. "Oh, hi", I said in reply, a little shy.

He let out a little laugh, which was weird because I thought he was sad. "This is usually the time when you tell me your name", he said.

"Oh, my name's Olivia", I said, a little embarrassed that I forgot to say it in the first place. "I like your name" Cato said, turning a bit red. Although, I'm not sure if he was blushing or if his cheeks were already red because of his crying. "What happened to you?" I ask, quickly changing the subject.

"Uh, I was–" He began, but was pulled away by someone much taller than him, who I think was his father. "Don't talk to her. You don't know her, Cato", the man said. Then, he turned to me and said, "I'm sorry if my son bothered you, Ms. Snow."

"Olivia!"

It was the first thing I heard that morning. It sounded like it was coming from the hall outside my hospital room, where they had me sleep in until they could find me a temporary family, and a place to live in.

I don't know whose voice it was, though I'm also not sure if it's because of my memory or because it's someone who I don't know. Nevertheless, I decide to follow it. I get up, walk out and as I'm turning to walk to the stairs, I see a girl in a bright yellow suit, purple heels and rainbow-colored hair. Must be a Capitol citizen. She waves at me with such delight in her face that it makes me want to barf. I walk over to her and I see that she has a lot of makeup on. In fact, so much makeup that it almost scares me to death.

"Olivia!" She smiles at me, with her icy-blue teeth. Disgusting.

"Hi! My name's Cynthia." She smiles again, but this time she lets out a big laugh. "Well, c'mon! Get dressed! We have to go for your morning walk."

I don't reply.

"Well, they said this was going to happen. Why don't you talk to anyone? It's terribly rude, if I have to be honest. We have to work on your manners. And your posture. And your organization. Wow, we better get started, shouldn't we? I have a list of all the things you must accomplish today. 7:30 - morning walk. 8:30 - shower. 9:00 - breakfast. 9:30 - study hall. 10:30 - music cla-"

"Um, okay. Just tell me what I have to do when I have to do it. Okay?" I say, cutting her off.

"Oh…" She pauses. "Alright!" I must have startled her or upset her, because she took a while to start smiling again. "Let's go!"

Thankfully, we walk in silence for a few minutes, but then she starts talking again. "So, even if it is rude interrupting people," She says, clearly referring to how I cut her off earlier. "It's good that you're talking again! Now, we are going outside to get some fresh air. I have a quick question. Would you like to have a shower before your morning walks or would you rather walk then shower? Because either way is good. I just want what you want! From now on, I'm your new best friend."

Pfft. Fat chance.

After lunch, I had free time, so I went back to my room and decided to take a nap.

"Olivia…." I heard someone say. It sounded like my father's voice. I tried to follow the voice, but I was strapped into my bed. I looked up at the ceiling, only there wasn't one. I could only see the blue sky, quickly turning into sunset, then night. I saw the stars, moving around. I thought it was normal for the stars to move around, but it looked like it was forming something. It was forming a face. I've seen this face before. Those blue eyes, blond hair, tall nose and missing teeth. It's the boy from yesterday. Cato. I tried to reach up, but I couldn't. I was being held down by something that smelled like roses. Daddy. Dad. Father. President Snow. I don't know what to call him. I can't call him Dad, because he doesn't treat me like his daughter. It's a good thing I won't be seeing him for a while though.

"Olivia." I heard it again. It was closer now, probably just a few feet away. Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder. It shook me, and then I woke up.

I was right. It was Cato. "Hi," I manage to say. "What are you doing here?" I add.

"Nothing," he says. "The doctors wanted me to come here."

"Why?"

"They told me yesterday that I'm the first person you've spoken to in the past two months."

I don't say anything.

"Why? Why don't you talk to anyone?

Silence.

"So now you're not gonna talk to me?"

"I'm sorry," I finally say.

"Why are you sorry?" He says. "You didn't do anything to me."

I just smile. "So why are you here? The doctors didn't tell you that you should come, did they?"

"Oh, I wanted to see how you were doing," He smiles. "I asked my dad if we could be the ones to volunteer to be your temporary family."

"What did he say?"

"He said that they'll never let that happen," He says. "Because we're not that important. Not like the mayor."

"Then what did you say?"

"I didn't say anything."

"Oh."

"Oh, that's not what I meant!" He quickly adds. "I just meant that I didn't say anything to him after that. When they asked for someone to be your temporary family, I raised my hand. They only allowed for you to live with us because I'm the first person you've talked to in two months."

"That's great," I say, before adding, "Wait, I'm gonna live with you?"

"Yup," He smiles. "I came to pick you up. Do you have all your stuff?"

"Yeah," I smile back. He helps me get out of the tall hospital bed, since I'm short and he's a lot taller than me, despite being only a little older than me.

We walk out of the room, hand in hand. Even if I've only known him for little while, I'm happy that I'm gonna go live with him. And it's been a while since I've been happy.


	2. Chapter 2

When Cato was twelve, he got sent to a training camp, which was basically training, but instead of going to the training center and then going home, you would live there. He would be there until he was eighteen, and then he would volunteer to join the Games. However, your name is still in the Reaping Bowl, and if you get called you still have to go, unless someone volunteers.

I was only eleven that time. Father only gave me one restriction: I cannot join the Hunger Games. He told everyone that my name would be put in, to be fair, but he told me my name wasn't going to go into the Bowl. I am allowed to volunteer; however, if I do, he promised me he would make the arena a living hell for me.

Since I was only eleven, I wasn't old enough to join the training camp. They said I was skilled enough to join, but I was still too young. So Father sent me to District 4, where their training camp is for kids ages eleven to seventeen. Which meant that the next time I would see Cato I would be seventeen. That was in six years.

The night before we left for the training camps, I heard a small knock on the door. I knew it was Cato and that's why I pretended to sleep. I'm not that good at goodbyes. Nevertheless, he entered my room and sat down beside my bed.

"Olivia…"

I suddenly remembered that night in the hospital, when he woke me up to pick me up. I remembered how happy I was that it was him on my bedside and I realized how now, I'm so devastated that it's him, because I knew we were going to say our goodbyes. How could things change so quickly? I started to tear up again at the thought of losing him.

"Olivia, I know you're awake. At least talk to me. Go up to the roof in 5 minutes," he whispered. "Please."

When he left, I got out of bed, grabbed my hoodie and running shoes, and climbed out the window to the roof. When I got there, he was already sitting there, staring at the stars.

I walked up to him and laid down, staring at the stars.

"I'm sorry I have to leave you. If I could, I would stay. You know that right?" He suddenly says.

"Yeah, I would too. If only we were the same age. I can't believe the next time I'd be able to see you would be in 6 years."

"I know. I can't believe your dad is sending you to District 4. Why can't he just let you wait a year and then go to the training camp here?"

"Because he's a horrible, horrible person, Cato. And I'm not just talking about the things he does to me."

"Yeah." He says, and then lays down beside me, and then holds my hand. After a while I sit up, because my tears started to make a pool, drowning my eyes. When I sat up though, all of it started to roll down my cheeks, and I tried to wipe them away. Cato saw though, and he sat up and hugged me until I calmed down.

It took a long while though, because with each passing moment I was enveloped in his hug, I kept thinking about how it might be our last, or how the next time we would hug would be in six years, or some other horrible thought about losing Cato. He was my best friend, and I would miss him so much.

When I first arrived in District 4, I had absolutely nowhere to go. Cynthia, my old escort, was back. She looked a little bit older, and thinner. He icy-blue teeth were gone and she now had pearl-white teeth, and her hair was long, straight and black, with the tips as red as blood. She wasn't wearing a lot of makeup, which surprised me. She actually looked normal, compared to how she looked before.

"My, my, my. You have grown so much!" Cynthia says, while looking me up and down. "I see we still have to work on your posture." She winks, and I stand up straight.

"That's better. Now, today is a going to be a big day! You'll be meeting with a prep team, and they'll remake you to Beauty Base Zero.Got it? Then after that, we'll work on your etiquette, and then training! Doesn't that sound fun?" She says, and then frowns, adding. "Oh my, you're not talking again?"

"No, I am. I was waiting for you to finish." I say. She smiles and say, "Oh, wow! Who taught you your manners?"

"Father send I had to go to etiquette school three times a week after training, so I did."

"That's marvelous! It worked. You just need to remember to stand up straight." She says, and pats me on the back, making my back straight.

"Right…" I say. "So, where's the prep team?"

"Third floor! I'll bring you there. And while we're walking, you can tell me what you've been up to! So what have you been doing?"

"Mostly training. It's really fun."

"Ah, yes. You have gotten quite muscular lately," She says. "But, the good kind! You look darling."

"Thank you," I say. Suddenly, she stops and says, "Okay, we're here!" And before she leaves she turns to me and says, "Remember, be polite. And don't get mad at your prep team!"

At first, I don't get what she means by that, but when I meet my prep team, I understand. I fully understand. My prep team has to be the most annoying prep team you can ever get. Seriously. These people are delusional. I almost forget all my etiquette training and want to use all my weapons training on them. That's how annoying they are.

When I first step into the room, they all scream at me. They say they haven't seen me in "forever" and that they remember when I was a little girl. The whole time they were prepping me, they kept talking. And talking. And talking. It was horrible, and I was so thankful when they all screamed at me when I was done.

"You look gorgeous!"

"You look stunning!"

"You look like your mother!"

I froze at the last comment. She covered her mouth and apologized, but I said it was okay. That's the best compliment I've ever gotten.

"Okay, we're done! Time for your etiquette training with Cynthia." One of them said.

When they leave the room, Cynthia comes in and smiles at me. "How was it?" She says.

"Good. They weren't that annoying," I lied. "They were kinda sweet."

"Well, seeing as you didn't talk bad about them behind their backs," she winks. "I guess you have some manners. But let's get started, shall we?"

After etiquette training, which was about two hours long, she said it was time for training.

"Now, since you have enough manners, we'll only be having class twice a week. Got it? We're supposed to have three, but you can use the extra time to do something productive. Like train. On the days when we don't have etiquette training, I'll be your teacher. We'll learn the basic stuff like Math, Science, and History. If you want to learn about something more though, you just have to tell me." She says, and then we leave the room and head upstairs, to the training center.

"This is your training room. The camp here in District 4 is very different from the one in 2. In 2, you live in the camp. In 4, you go home and live with a Victor. Since 4 doesn't have as many Victors as 2 does, some houses will have a lot of trainees, while others will have very little. Some might even have just one. Usually, they let the most adept at killing live alone with the Victor, so he or she will learn more things. Got it?"

"I think so. Why isn't 2's training camp like this?"

"Well, because they want to make sure the trainees are disciplined, and they want to make sure their values are being reinforced even after training."

"Oh, yeah." Just then, the head trainer opened the door to the training room and told me to step in. I said bye to Cynthia and she reminded me to be showered and dressed by 7, for dinner. It was now 4:30, and I was happy to see that I was early for training.

"So, Olivia. Training is usually at 5, but since you're here already, why not get started? Are you okay with that?"

"Yeah. Wait, what's your name?"

"My name is Crash, and this is my sister, Shore." He said and pointed at a girl who looked exactly like him. "Now, most of the trainers aren't here yet, but let's get started. What are your specialties?"

"Well, I'd rather show you." I said, and started walking towards the knives. I picked the best ones I could find out of the pile of twelve and walked towards the dummies. I had eight knives, and there were seven dummies. I had one extra, but I wasn't planning on using it.

"When you're ready." I hear Crash say and when I tell him go the dummies start moving around. I looked confused but when I threw a knife in one's heart, it stopped moving. "The goal is to stop the dummies from moving. With each kill, the dummies will move faster."

I took note of this and decided it would be easier to kill them at the same time. So, I held four knives in one hand and put the remaining three inside the sleeve of my jacket. I transferred two knives into my other hand, all in less than a minute.

I got a good grip on my first two knives, and then threw at two different dummies, killing both of them. Before Crash could make them speed up, I gripped my other two and threw my knives at another pair of dummies.

There were two dummies left and I swore at myself for not putting three knives in each hand, that way I would have already been done. I heard the machine behind me roar and the dummies sped up, but I could still throw. I gripped one knife in right hand and the other one in my left, leaving one in my jacket pocket. I threw them at the same time and one knife landed in the heart of the dummy and the other landed in the head.

"Impressive. No one's ever thought of throwing them at the same time. Anything else?"

I nod, and walk over to the spear section.

"Now, the goal is to kill the farthest dummy, way in the back," he points to a green colored dummy, in the back of the room.

"That's it?" I say, and then regret it immediately because I think it made me sound obnoxious.

Thankfully Crash doesn't think so, because he lets out a laugh and says, "Of course not. There are going to be dummies moving around in front of your target, but you can't hit them."

"Why not?"

"Well, because they're supposed to be the civilians."

"What's wrong with killing civilians?" I say, then regret it again. I forgot that I'm now in District 4 and they're more sensitive about death.

"Your District 2 is showing." Crash says, then winks.

"Shut up," I say playfully. "Oh, sorry. In District 2 we're very informal with the way we talk to our trainers."

"It's fine. Just don't talk that way to me during training. Got it?"

"Aren't we training?" I ask.

"Yeah, but no one's here." He says, and then tells me to throw. I grab four spears and test my throw on a practice dummy before beginning, because this spear is heavier. When I get the feel of it, I tell Crash that I'm ready to begin. He starts the machine and I see dummies moving around, but I see a couple of dummies the same color as my target.

"Why are there green dummies? Am I supposed to hit them?" I ask.

"No, they're there to distract you." He says, and then tells me to continue. I count the seconds that the "civilians" take to cross in front of my target, and when I count fifteen in my head, there is a small clearing where my spear can make it.

I count fifteen again, and when I hit thirteen, I throw, since if I throw at fifteen it will be too late. My spear makes it way through all the dummies and lands itself into the green dummy's heart, and red liquid spills out.

"Sweet, where'd you get the fake blood?" I say, smiling.

"Who told you it was fake?" Crash, says grinning. "You're very good at using weapons, and you're good at using your brains too. That's great. Anything else?"

"District 2 teaches you a lot of things, but I'm most comfortable with knives and spears. Technically anything you can throw. Though my best friend is great with swords and machetes, so he taught me how to use them. I'm pretty good." I say, and then I start to feel bad for a little while because I thought of Cato.

I'm guessing Crash sensed this because he says, "Well, he's in District 2 now, isn't he? You can't think about it while you're here. I'm saying this as your trainer and as your friend. It will only make you weaker physically and emotionally. Got it?"

"Got it." I say, and then he smiles and says, "Now, show me how good you are with that sword."

After I slice a couple of dummies in half, the rest of the trainees come in. Some of them are my age, but most are older and more muscular. We all introduce ourselves, and I'm glad that we don't have to say our last names, because if we did, I'm sure everyone would recognize me and treat me differently. I don't want to be treated differently; I want to be treated normally.

I'm also glad that I've been out of the media's eyes for a while, so you wouldn't recognize me, since I guess a lot of people have forgotten how my mother looks like.

During practice, we are assigned to a trainer, group and a station, and I'm assigned to Dawn, an archery trainer. Back home, I didn't really pay attention to it, since our head trainer said it was okay for me to concentrate on knives and spears.

Here though, I find that I am very good at it and in just two hours, Dawn says I'm almost as good as her. I take that as a compliment since she's probably been training since she could walk.

When we finish with our stations, Crash calls us back for a meeting. He says this was a test to see if we were good enough to be part, and sends home all of the eleven year-olds and half of the twelve year-olds. He says they'll be training at the training center, and they can try out next year.

_Great_, I think. _I'm new here and I'm the youngest_. I bet no one would want to hangout with the twelve year-old new girl from District 2. I head over to my room and take a nice cold shower. It's really hot here in District 4, but I kind of like it. After I shower, I dry myself of and slip into my sweatpants, t-shirt and running shoes. Before I leave my room, I look at myself in the mirror.

I'm not like most eleven year-olds. I'm shorter than most, but I have more muscle. I'm also not like most of the kids from District 4. Most of them are darker than me, but still white. They all like using tridents, but I prefer using knives and spears. Thinking about tridents, I make a mental note of trying one out tomorrow.

Anyways, they're all really nice and friendly, and I doubt I'm like that. Also, they have consciences, and I doubt I have that. In District 2, we all think the same.

_Kill or be killed_, I think, remembering what our head trainer said on the first day or training. I was six then, and I was scared of what training would be like, since the first time I met Cato, he was in the hospital because of an open fracture that his trainer gave him. He told me that it was his own ignorance to be blamed, but I still got scared. I'm not anymore, though. I got used to it. Just like how I got used to not seeing my real parents.

_Mom_. That's someone who I never see and can't really blame it on anyone. At least I can blame Father for leaving me alone, but I can't blame Mom. She didn't want to die, and I bet she didn't want to leave me alone with Father.

I think of what little memories I have with Mom. She died when I was two, and it's amazing how Father put up with me for four years, and then finally decided that he couldn't do it anymore.

I remember how Mom used to sing me to sleep. I remember how she took me to District 4 one time, and we played in the beach the whole day. That's all I remember, and I can't even see her face in any of those memories. I can only hear her voice.

The only reason why I know how Mom looks like is because of all the pictures people show me. She had long, blonde hair and green eyes. She had a thin nose and freckles. She had lips as pink as the morning dawn and straight, white teeth. She also had a body frame so fragile it looks like I can snap her in half, and I'm only eleven.

I can't believe Cato thinks I look like her. I say, and then scold myself for thinking about him. _Crash's right. I can't think about Cato anymore. I doubt he's thinking of me, anyways_, I think. He's crazy though; I don't look like her. I have blonde hair, but my roots are dark since Father's are too.

My eyes are weird, though. They change color, which I always thought was a little bizarre. Cato says when I'm happy, they turn green, like Mom's. He also says that they turn blue, like Father's when I think negative. And when I'm thinking, or I feel in between positive and negative, they turn amethyst, with specks of green and blue in them.

I think the only thing I got from Mom was my nose, lips and teeth. I don't have a build like anyone. I'm not tall like my parents, but I'm guessing it's because I'm still eleven. I'm not as fragile as Mom, but not as thick as Father. I'm in the middle, because of all my muscle.

I'm not the muscular like the older kids, though. People say they get surprised when they see me throw because I don't look as strong as the older kids, who can't even throw.

I think that's a good thing though, because I can sneak up on my enemies. Cato said it was a good thing. _Damn, I gotta stop that, _I think, and then head off to dinner before I can think of another memory with Cato.

"There she is!" I hear someone shout as I enter the dining hall. I ignore it, assuming they're referring to someone else. I walk over to the food table, and the lady at the counter gives me a container, a banana, bread, and a juice box. I turn around, and see a boy waving at me, telling me to go to their table. I look around, thinking he's motioning to someone else.

"Over here!" He says, and continues smiling. I walk over to him and just stand there, looking at him and his friends. "You're pretty good. I saw you go into training early and practice with Crash. I'm Sebastian, and this is Harbor, Finn, Wave and Tide, they're twins by the way, and Shelly."

They all look a lot older than me, probably about twelve or thirteen. Sebastian looks the oldest though, probably about fourteen. Then again, it could be just because he's really tall.

"Well…?" Shelly says, smiling.

"What?" I say.

"This is usually the part where you tell us your name." Sebastian says, laughing. I almost freeze, remembering Cato, because that's one of the first words he ever said to me, but I stop myself. I have to be strong.

"Oh, right. I'm Olivia."

"See, I told you!" Finn says, then adds, "We weren't really listening during the introduction part, but I caught your name. Hard to not pay attention to someone who hit the green dummy on the first try."

"Damn!" They all say, then hand him over their juice boxes. I'm about to leave because I think they only invited me over to settle their bet when Finn scoots over and tells me he'll split the winnings with me, "because your name is Olivia and therefore I won the bet." according to him.

Midway through our dinner, Shelly, who's on my left says, "Finn! Can I have a juice box? I was close! I thought her name was Olive."

"No." Finn says, then sticks a piece of his bread in his mouth, smiling.

"C'mon! I'll give you a kiss." She says, taunting him. Sebastian motions for me to sit beside him, and I happily take his offer. "They've been together for two years." He whispers, and then I turn to him and say, "They've been together since they were _eleven_?"

"What? No! Finn's seventeen, and Shelly's sixteen. They both don't look like it, right?"

"Yeah. I thought you were the oldest." I say, then realize he might take it as an insult so I quickly add, "Because you're so tall."

"Nah," He laughs. "I'm twelve. Finn's the oldest, then Shelly. Wave and Tide are fourteen, and Harbor's thirteen. Finn doesn't look old because he doesn't like having lots of muscle seen, but trust me, he's really strong."

"So this is his last year?"

"Yup. And Shelly's devastated. I bet she wishes they'd be in the same house, so they could spend more time with each other."

"Yeah, I bet so too."

"So, how come you're the only eleven year-old who didn't get wiped out?" Wave asks, then Tide nudges him and says, "Are you blind? Did you not see her throws?"

"Oh, right. You have to teach me that by the way." Wave says, but Tide nudges him again and says, "No, teach me first. Ladies first, right?" Just then, Shelly pulls away from Finn's kiss and says, "Yeah, ladies first! So teach me, then Tide! I'm more of a lady than she is." She says, then playfully nudges Tide.

Tide turns to her right, where Shelly is, and pinches her. Just before Shelly could retaliate, Harbor, who was sitting on the left side of Sebastian and the right side Finn, gets up and sits in between them. Since Harbor's muscular and has his back turned to Shelly so there's little space for them to fight, they stop. Wave, who's on my right, high fives him.

When we finish dinner we are instructed to go to our rooms and get some rest, and that's what I try to do. Only I can't because I have a horrible nightmare about Cato.

It starts out with Cato and me on the roof, like on the night when we said our goodbyes. As he's reaching over to hug me, a huge earthquake erupts and soon Cato and me are separated by a huge crack in the ground. He tries to jump over to me, but I tell him not to because I know the crack is too big. I'm right, and he falls into the deep crack, which is pitch-black.

I try to call out his name, but nothing comes out of my mouth. I hear him call me for help, like he's hurt, but not from the fall, hurt by something that is inside the crack. I jump in to help him, but when I jump, I end up on the roof again. I hear him call me one more time, and then I hear him shout out in pain.

I start to see the crack close and I try to jump in one more time to save him, but I just end up on the roof again. When I look down, I see the ground has closed and Cato is back on flat ground, chained to two walls which are beside him, and down there with him is Father. He looks different, but it is definitely Father. He is taller, has more muscle than usual and when he stares into my eyes, they are pitch-black, like the now-closed crack where Cato was.

I see Cato try to remove his hands and feet from the chains, but this hurts him even more. When I look closer, he has a big scratch on his back and I see that Father has a whip in his hand.

I climb back into my room and grab my knives, and run down the stairs. When I get downstairs, I run out the door and see Cato still trying to escape, but every time he does, blood spills out of the chains. I'm guessing the chains have something to make him bleed every time he moves, except I don't know what. I shout at him to stop moving but he doesn't listen so I run towards him but fall back because I hit something, only I can't see what.

There seems to be a force field around them, and I can't get through. Now Father hits him again, and I realize he's trying to spell something on his back. I run around the force field, so I now face Cato's face, and he looks horribly injured.

I call out to him, and my voice comes out now, but he can't hear me. I try to run to him again, but I can't get through. I can only watch him being hurt by Father.

Cato looks up at me and I try to call out to him except for some reason he can't see me and can't hear me, so I decide to try and break the force field. I step back and ram my shoulder into it, but it doesn't work.

I stop for a second, and when I do Father looks at me, smiles, and wraps his whip around Cato's neck. I scream at him, but he can't hear me, or he's ignoring me. I scream at Cato to try and hold on, and then I throw my knife at Father to try and kill him but it just bounces back and hits me in the chest. I fall to the ground and watch Cato slowly die, while I myself am dying.

Cato dies before I do, and I see his ghost leave his body and try to go over to me, but Father takes out a big bottle labeled "Tributes" and Cato's ghost gets sucked into it. Before it does though, his ghost calls out to me and says, "Olivia… Please."

After a while I finally die, and my ghost floats over where Cato's body was. I can finally enter the force field, and I float over to Cato. I try to hold is face up, but I can't, because my hand just passes through it. I then try to hug him, but my hands just pass through his body. I float over to his back, and I try to read what's spelled on his back, which is now covered with blood.

I see the word that Father spelled on his back. _MUTTS. _At first I don't understand, but then I see something in between his shoulder blades. It's smaller compared to _MUTTS_, but definitely deeper, like it was cut using a knife. _DEATH BY:_ is there, and it looks really gruesome. I say goodbye to Cato with tears in my eyes, which is weird because I'm supposed to be dead.

I wake up shaking, and at first I think I really am dead, but I soon find I'm not, because it is morning, clock reads 6:35 and I hear someone knock on the door.

"Olivia?" I hear someone say.

I get out of bed and walk over to the door, opening it. When I do, I see Sebastian standing there, scratching the back of his head. Sebastian is blonde, and like me, has dark roots. He is also tall and very muscular. In fact, he's so muscular that he looks sixteen, but he's only twelve.

He has freckles that spread across his nose and under his eyes, but it looks kind of cute on him. He's wearing his training clothes, which is weird because training isn't until after breakfast, which is at 7:30, since we all don't have school today.

"Are you okay? I woke up and heard you screaming." He says.

"Yeah, I am. I just had a nightmare. Sorry, did I wake you up?"

"No, I was going to go jogging at 6:30 so I woke up at 6:15. Do you want to talk about it?"

"Nah, that's alright. You're late for your jog, anyways. See you at breakfast?"

"Yeah," he says, but then before he turns around to go jog he adds, "Unless you wanna come. We can talk about it while jogging. My mom used to say that it always helps to talk about it." When he sees that I don't really feel like talking about it he says, "Or we can just jog. I doubt it's true talking about it helps though. I mean, isn't that what mother's are supposed to say?"

"I wouldn't know, mine died when I was two."

"Oh… Sorry."

"It's fine," I say, then change the subject. "Let me change, then let's go?"

"Okay. I'll meet you outside."

When he left, I turned around and walked over to my closet. I didn't feel like wearing my training clothes, which is a tight fit t-shirt and pants, and special shoes that we can use for any kind of terrain, kind of like what the tributes have to wear for training before they go into the arena.

Instead of wearing that, I decided to just wear a comfy t-shirt and some running shorts. When I get outside, I see Sebastian waiting for me and walk over to him. He sees me, smiles, and gets up. We stretch for a while and then start running. After a few miles, we see a water fountain and take a break.

"This is a really nice running course." I say, to break the silence. I soon find out that there was a silence because Sebastian lost his breath.

"Well, yeah. I never actually got this far. I usually run a little, swim a lot, then head back for breakfast." He says in between breaths.

"Oh, sorry. I'm used to running really far without stopping. You could've told me to stop, you know." I smile and add, "We can go back if you want."

"No, I think we're almost back to the starting line. Since this course is a circle."

"Oh, okay. Wanna rest some more or go jog?"

"Let's go." He says once he gets back his breath. We take another sip of water, then start jogging again.

Once we get back, we head back to our rooms to get ready for breakfast and training. Sebastian said he'd meet me in the breakfast place, since he might take longer than usual, and because he might take a nap, since there are still a few minutes left before breakfast.

I nod and go to my room so I can shower, change and go to breakfast. It's 7:15 when I finish, and I decide to walk around, since we're not allowed into the breakfast area before 7:30.

I walk up to the eating area floor, which is the top floor, and decide to walk around there. When I pass the eating area though, I see that the door is open. The plates are not yet set, which is odd because in ten minutes, about a hundred people will be going in for breakfast. In ten minutes, about 80 kids, 10 trainers and 10 Victors (some are not here) will be walking through that door, hungry, sleepy and most will be very cranky. And you know, if they don't get their food in time someone will get hurt.

_Oh well, not my problem_, I think, and walk in. I look around and see that I was wrong. About half a hundred plates are set, which means they either didn't set it yet or they sent people home. I see tiny cards in front of each plate, with a name on them. I walk over to the one closest to me and read the name. _Marina_.

I remember Marina. She's a short, brown-haired, thirteen year-old girl. When we were asked to introduce ourselves and show our specialty on the first day, she got her bow and arrow and shot it across the room, and it landed right in the heart of a dummy. I guess it surprised most of us because she didn't look like could fight, much less have a specialty and be good at it.

Nevertheless, her name is here and I guess she's making it to the next round. At least that's what I think the reason is for having only half a hundred plates set, instead of a hundred. I hear the sound of footsteps and on instinct, I grab my knife out of my pocket and turn around. I'm about to throw it at whoever steps through the door when I see Crash put his hand up.

"Hey! Don't kill me." He smiles. "You're not supposed to carry weapons outside of the training room."

"Oh, sorry." I say, and put it back in my jacket.

"It's okay, this is your first time here, right?"

"Well, I went here with my mom when I was a kid, but that was a long time ago."

"I meant, have you ever trained here?"

"Nope." I say.

"Yeah, so you don't know the rules. But next time I'm going to have to get that from you. It's the rules. Okay?"

"Okay." I say.

"And you're not supposed to be in here. It's 7:27. Breakfast is at 7:30."

"Sorry, I just love being 3 minutes early for everything." I smirk at him and say, "Why are there so little plates set compared to yesterday?"

"That's a secret you'll find out in 3 minutes." He smirks back at me and says, "Now get out before someone sees you."

"Fine." I leave, and walk outside for a few minutes. When I get back to the eating area, I find that people are all waiting outside and the door is closed. I look around for a while, and soon find Sebastian. I walk over to him and see that he's standing awkwardly beside Finn and Shelly, who are kissing.

When he sees me, a huge smile breaks out on his face and he walks closer to me. Right before he can say something, then door opens and we turn around, and see Crash. Compared to a few minutes ago, he looks really serious now, and he's holding a megaphone.

"When you go inside the eating area, you will find that only about 70 plates will be set, 5 for the trainers who are here today, none for the Victors since they're not here today, and 65 for you guys. You are 80, all in all." He says, then adds sarcastically, "Can anyone guess what that means?"

"Well, in case you didn't know, only 30 people can actually join the training camp. The rest are sent home and have to train in the training center. They also have to wait a whole year to join in again. When they're gone though, we start training for real, and then you guys start living with the Victors." Crash continues.

Some people gasp as they realize that 15 people will be going home today but Sebastian and I look at each other and grin, because we both know what is on both our minds. _If 15 people are gone, that means 65 people will be left. And that also means that only 35 other people will have to go before the fun starts._


	3. Chapter 3

When Sebastian and I walk into the eating area, we quickly say bye and look for our names. I find mine right away and look around for Sebastian, whose eyes meet mine and he smiles. Even from across the room, I can tell that we both knew we were both going to get in. Sebastian's really good with the bow and arrow and the machete, so I knew he was going to get in.

He mouths to me something that I can't quite get so he puts his thumb to his remaining four fingers and does the same with his other hand. He then puts them together, so it looks like his fingers are kissing. _Oh, very clever, Sebastian_. I think, and raise my shoulders to tell him that I don't know where Finn and Shelly are.

I decide to look at the names beside mine. _Marina, _is on my right, and _Brooke_ is on my left. I can't believe I saw Marina's name a while ago and I didn't see mine, which was right next to it. Soon, Marina comes up next to me and smiles. I ask her if she's seen Brooke but she says no.

Brooke is probably the oldest girl here. She's the older cousin of Finn, which means this is also her last year. She's tall, even taller than Finn, and lean. She has piercing blue eyes and straight, blonde hair. On the first day, to show us her specialty, an axe, she sliced five dummies in half, all at once. Also, to show us how skilled she was, she got a weighted axe and she threw it across the room and it stuck right in the middle of the wall.

I watch as everyone settles down and I notice that Brooke still isn't here. Crash asks all the ones who didn't get accepted to go outside, where he will escort them out. He leaves, and all of us start cheering. When he comes back, he jokingly asks if we cheered because we got in or because he left the room.

"Now, is anyone who's supposed to be here, _not_ here?" He asks, and then Marina's hand shoots up.

"Brooke's not here. She's supposed to be beside Olivia."

"Oh, yeah. Brooke's in the clinic. She got a nosebleed because I accidentally hit her with my megaphone when I was escorting the others out." He says. "Now, two days from now at dinner, there will be a box in front of you. In it, will be a paper. In this paper, you will see A, the weapons you will need to learn how to use, or improve on while living with the Victor. B, the list of Victors who you might live with. They won't necessarily be your final one, but if you have only one name, then it is your final choice. Got it? And C, the amount of people who you will live with. Some of you will get as high as 10, and some as low as 0, meaning you'll be living alone with the Victor."

We all nod and start eating. After breakfast, I find Sebastian and we decide to look for Finn, Shelly, Harbor, Wave and Tide, since training is at 9:00 and it's only 8:30. As we walk out though, we find them all standing outside talking and laughing. When they see us they all smile and walk towards us.

"Hi!" Shelly says, and then pulls me into a hug. "Weren't the blueberries today so good?"

"Yeah, they were," Finn says, and kissing Shelly. "How many did you have? Your mouth still tastes like them."

"Anyways," Wave says, "What do you guys want for thirty minutes?"

"Why don't we go to the training room already?" I say. "On the first day my escort dropped me there a little early and Crash said since I was there I could train."

"He only allowed you because you're new. He'd never let any of us train early." Harbor says.

"It's worth a shot though. If not, we can just hang outside the training room." Sebastian says.

"Let's go then." Finn says, and walks towards the stairs holding Shelly's hand.

We decide to walk slowly to kill the time so by the time we get to the training room it's 8:55 and Harbor was right, Crash and Shore didn't let us in, so we just stayed outside.

By 9:00, everyone was outside and then Crash opened the doors and said, "Now, there will be a table full of weapons inside. They are all different, though some will have two of each, and today we each are going to work on that specific weapon. So, for example, if you choose the bow and arrows, you'll be alone with Dawn, our archery trainer. Got it? Now, since you're all in a line, we'll do that. First to choose, Finn." He says, and Sebastian, who's in front of me, turns around and thanks me for having the idea of coming here early.

Finn's the first to choose, and he chooses the knives. Shelly, who was behind him, pouts because I know she wanted to learn how to throw them. Instead she chooses the bow and arrow, and then Wave chooses the machete. Tide chooses the spear and Harbor chooses the trident. _Damn, _I think. _I wanted that trident_. Sebastian goes up to the table and chooses a hand wrap, which I'm guessing is for the hand-to-hand combat station. It's now my turn and I want to choose the second pair of knives that Shelly seems to have not seen, but I choose the axe, because I don't really know how to use it.

Living in District 2, you don't need much use for an axe. You usually use axes in District 7, which is used for lumber. I walk over to Charlie, my trainer for today. I didn't see any other axes on the table, so I guess I'm training alone today. Charlie is a short, plump, old lady, so she surprises me when she demonstrates how to use an axe by chopping 6 dummies in a row.

"Now, today I'll be teaching you how to use an axe. We have the whole day today, so I expect you to be almost as good as I am by the day ends. If I feel that you are incapable, I will send you home. Got it?" She says.

"Is that allowed?"

"Yes. In fact, that will be the case for everyone today. Okay?"

"Okay, lets start." I smile at her.

After about three hours of training, Charlie says that I have learned enough, and dismisses me early. She says to be back at 2, after lunch, and then I'll fight against her until training ends.

I don't have anything to do and Sebastian and all the others are still training, so I decide to go to my room and sleep, since I didn't get that much from the night before. I manage to sleep, and soon hear a knock on my door.

"Olivia! Are you awake?" I hear Shelly by the door. I walk over to the door and rub my eyes. When I open it, I see Shelly, Finn, Wave and Sebastian by my door.

"Hey guys. Where are Tide and Harbor?" I say.

"Still at training. They have to skip lunch today, since they need to train. However, I am _starving_ so let's go already." Finn says.

We decide to eat fast so we're the first ones at training again but when we get to the training room after eating, we find that the door is open and some of the trainees are still training.

"Are we late?" Wave asks.

"No, they were training since this morning." Crash says, appearing behind us. "Their trainers didn't let them off to lunch, since they thought that they needed more training. You guys start in about 10 minutes. You can go in and watch if you want."

We do, and we all sit in a circle in the corner of the room. Harbor soon joins us and asks if we have any food.

"Sorry dude, I have none. I think the eating area's still open though. Try asking for a sandwich or something easy to eat. I think we train again at 2." Wave says.

Harbor leaves, and then it's just us again. When he comes back, he's holding an apple and an energy drink. He sits beside me and right when he finishes his food, Crash comes in and tells us it's time to train again.

"Good timing." He says, and then we all leave to go to our stations.

When I get to my station, Charlie isn't there yet, so I just sit and wait. After about five minutes, she comes and apologizes for being late. I say it's okay, and then we start fighting.

"Now, obviously we won't be using real axes, but we'll be using weighted sticks, which weigh about as much as the axes. Your goal is to knock me out, or make me tap out. No blood though. Got it?" She says.

I know exactly how to knock her out using a weighted stick. I'll hit her in her nerve spots, and that will make her black out for a few minutes. I grab my stick, and stand in position. Without me knowing, Charlie grabs her stick and hits me right in my waist, and this makes me stumble a little.

I smirk at her, grip my stick and slam it in her neck, right in the nerve. Since I hit it hard enough, she falls on her knees but is not yet knocked out because I only hit one. I walk over to her right side and slam it in her other nerve, and she falls on her chest. I drop my stick and walk over to the back of her neck, and then start massaging it.

I look around while doing this and see that the whole room has stopped and all of the trainers and trainees are staring at me. Some are smiling and giving me a thumbs up while some look at me with their mouths open. Guess they didn't expect an eleven year-old to beat up a forty year-old.

After a while, she wakes up and then thanks me for reviving her. She tells me that since I'm the only person who has ever knocked her out, I get to have the rest of the day off, or I can grab the extra weapons and practice. I check the table, and the only weapons left are the ones I already know how to use and since the weapons I want to learn how to use are taken, I go back to my room and sleep.

I wake up with the sound of someone knocking on my door again.

"Olivia, are you sleeping again?" Sebastian says behind my door.

"Whatever. I didn't get much sleep last night." I say as I open my door.

"Yeah, my neither. You kept screaming." He says and grins at me.

I punch him. "You said I didn't wake you up!"

"You didn't I'm just teasing." He laughs.

"Where are the others?" I ask, looking around.

"Oh, they're still in training. We have like half an hour left and Crash said you were the only other person let out early. What do you want to do?"

"Eat."

"Well, we have to wait half an hour for that. What else?"

"Jog." I say, teasing.

"Whatever. What'd you do at home for fun?"

"Kill things. You?"

"Eat. So I guess we have nothing to do, huh?"

"We'll think of something. C'mon let's explore this place."

"Better than nothing." He says, and we walk down the stairs, towards the basement. It's a long walk going to the basement since we're on the 5th floor. When we get to the basement though, we see a sign that says _NO ENTRY_.

"Well, that was completely useless." Sebastian says, and frowns at the sign.

"No it wasn't," I say, and step over the sign. "C'mon, Sebastian. Live a little."

"If I 'live a little'," he says, putting his two fingers in the air and bending them, "I won't live very long, since they'll probably kill me for entering."

"Fine. Your loss." I say, and step back and walk up the stairs. "You coming Sebastian?" I grin at him.

He follows me and says, "You know you can call me Seb, right? Sebastian's such a long name."

"Well, Seb, you are such wimp. Why didn't you wanna go exploring with me? There's a reason they call in exploring." I say.

"Whatever. Let's hurry up. I'm starving."

When we get to the eating area, I see that everyone is there already. Seb and I walk over to Shelly, Finn, Harbor and Wave. Tide is in the line, getting food.

"That's her third serving." Wave laughs, looking over at Tide. "She must have gotten hungry."

"Are you kidding me? I'm starving." Tide says in between bites of her food as she comes up behind Wave, shoves him to the side and sits down. "You guys better hurry up or the food will be gone."

"Wow, is it that good that so much people are getting?" Seb says.

"No, it might be gone because I might finish it all if you don't." Tide smiles at us. We walk over to the line, get our food then walk back. Midway through our meal, Crash comes in and says over his megaphone, "Now, if you don't have a box in front of you, you're going home."

I look in front of me and see that I don't have a box but I don't worry, because I also noticed that no one has one either. It's a just a joke. I relax a little, and look back at Crash.

"Just kidding. That's for tomorrow night. Now, tomorrow will be a little different. Instead of you choosing your weapons to learn for the day, you'll be picking it from a bowl. In the bowl is a piece of paper containing a number. The number is your weapon. So, for example, if you get a five, it's going to be an axe. Okay? Training same time tomorrow, no school yet. Night guys."

"I hope I get the knives." Shelly says.

"Shelly, you know there were two knives." I say.

"What? So I trained with that creepy guy for nothing? And I already knew how to use the bow and arrow." She frowns.

"At least you got to practice." Wave says, trying to cheer her up.

After dinner, we're instructed to go back to our rooms and rest, like last night. I sleep easily tonight, since no bad dreams come. Instead, I dream of my mother.

We're walking together along the shores of District 4, and we're laughing and holding hands. I try to look up at her but all I see is sunlight. I call out her name and she looks at me. I see her face this time, and it is beautiful. I look straight ahead again, but this time I'm in a car with her. I remember this car. It's the car that we rode in the day she died.

I thought that this wonderful dream would be a nightmare like last night, but it isn't. We arrive in District 12, the place where we were supposed to go the day she died. I step out of the car, and I see a tall, brown-haired girl crying. She's older than me, probably by a year. She's holding a blonde little girl, who's probably half her age and she's crying too.

I walk over to them and hug them. When I pull away, I see that they have stopped crying and the brown-haired girl is giving me something. She smiles at me as she puts it in my hand then walks away with the blonde girl. I open my hand and see a gold pendent with a bird in it. It's a mockingjay. I'm about to run after her and ask her about it when a blonde boy appears beside me and puts his hand on my shoulder.

"Please, help me." He says, and then sinks to his knees. I ask him what's wrong but I don't respond, I just sit there beside him hugging him. This seems to work since he stops shaking and just looks at me. I ask him what his name is but he doesn't answer. He sits up and kisses me on the forehead, and then disappears.

I stand up and look at my mother, who is a few feet behind me. I run to her to hug her but when I do, my hands go through her as if she's a ghost. But then I remember she is a ghost. She lifts up her hand and puts it on my cheek, just leaving it there for a while and smiling at me.

"Everyone wake up!" She shouts at me. Only it's not her voice. It's Crash's. I wake up and look at the clock, it's 12:45. Why is he waking us up so early? Nevertheless, I get up and quickly change into my sweatpants and grab my running shoes. I put them on and run out the door.

The hallway is a mess. There is glow-in-the-dark paint painted randomly on the walls, and everyone is moving down the stairs, I'm guessing towards the basement. I look on my right to see if Seb is awake but I decide to look for him later. I run down the stairs and see that I was right; we're in the basement.

Everyone looks sleepy, but I'm wide awake now. I try to look for Seb, Finn, Shelly, Wave, Tide and Harbor, but I only find the Finn and Wave.

"What the hell is going on?" Finn says while yawning.

"I don't know." Wave says, still looking around for Tide. I continue looking for Seb, Shelly and Harbor, but I can't see since I'm so short. It's also very noisy, since all of us are cranky and there are sirens wailing.

Suddenly, they stop and Crash get's his megaphone and stands on a table.

"Now, as you all know, it's only 1 am. You must think I'm crazy for waking you up, but this is a tradition, okay? Now, usually this is just for the newcomers, but most of them got wiped out and if we play using the remaining newcomers, that will be a game consisting of one player." He says, then looks at me and grins. No one saw though, so it's good that they don't know that I'm the only newcomer.

"Most of you should remember this game but for those who don't, it's called Bang-sack. Ring a bell? When we get to the arena, you will be given a helmet and will be put in a chair. This helmet will serve as your eyes, since you won't be physically in the arena. The chair will give you shocks if you get hit, so it's more realistic. Got it?" He says.

"Now, the objective of the game is to, well, defeat your opponent. There will be two teams. The bangers and the sackers. The bangers will have to defeat the sackers by either using their laser pointers to point at their opponents, which will stun them and shut off their helmets, which 'kills' them. The sackers will have to hide and go up to the bangers and stab them using their selective weapon. You can throw your weapon, but you have to be in at least a three feet radius. Everyone understand so far?"

"The one who get 'killed' will most likely go home. However, if we feel that you were too good during training to be sent home, we will let you stay. Although just because you're good during training doesn't mean that you can just die here. The ones with the most kills gets to pick who to live with first, or have the Victors choose where they want you to live. Now, go into the trains outside and get off when you hear the whistle." He says, steps off the table and heads upstairs.

Wave, Finn and I walk into one of the train's cars and sit down on the floor. All the furniture has been removed, and now the only thing left is the paint on the walls. Actually, no. The paint is peeling, so I don't think it really counts. The train's sides have been removed, or at least in this car it has, so we can see outside and smell the fresh air of Panem.

I sit by the edge of the car and dangle my feet over the edge, even if we've moving really fast. Finn joins me and soon Shelly does too, greeting me as she sits down.

"Where'd you go?" I say to her.

"Oh, we were on the left side. You guys were on the right." She says, shrugging.

"Oh, okay. How will we know what team we're on?" I ask them, since I'm sure they've done it before.

"You know when you put your helmet on. It will tell you." Finn says, and looks at the scenery before us change. "By the way, we've going to District 3. Since that's where all this fancy technology comes from. That's why we left so early. Since it takes about an hour to get there and this game lasts about 3 or 4 hours on average. Then we have to go back and stay on schedule."

"We have training after this? And no rest?" I ask.

"Yup. Usually we have school after this so we can sleep during class but since it's only the initiation part of the training camp, we don't have school. I guess they want to see who has the most stamina." Wave says as he comes up behind me. He sits down next to Shelly and lies down, with his feet dangling over the side.

Soon, we all do the same and we fall asleep, only to be woken up by the sound of Crash's voice a few moments later.

"We're here!" Crash says over the megaphone with a smile on his face. I sit up and look at the scenery in front of me. I've never been to District 3, and I can see why no one has ever bothered to take me here. In my opinion, it's not ugly, but it's definitely not as stunningly beautiful as District 1, 2, 4, 7 or 10.

There are buildings everywhere with smoke coming out of them, which is probably why I don't find it so beautiful. It's probably only 3 am now since it takes an hour to get from 4 to 3, but for some reason the sun is beginning to rise. I guess it rises early here in District 3.

The train keeps on moving even though we are here already, but I see it's so that we can take a look at District 3. With the sun rising over the buildings, it kind of looks peaceful. All of a sudden, a building in the distance lights up and ruins the moment.

"That's where we're going." Wave says, and points at the building. The train moves faster now, and soon we're at the building, which I soon find out is a train station. We hear the whistle, and Crash tells us to get out and walk to the building across from the train station, and a few minutes later we're all in the building he told us to go to.

It's dark, since the building's windows block out the sun. I try to look for a clock, but I can't really see what's in this building, much less if there's a clock.

"What time is it?" I ask the person beside me.

He lights up his watch and reads the time on it. "It's 6 am."

"I thought it only took an hour to get here from District 4? Didn't we leave at 2?" The person beside him says.

"Apparently we went the wrong way and ended up in District 5. They kind of look the same so they waited for the train station to light up for like, an hour. Then it took two more hours to get from 5 to 3. That means this game will end at about 10 am, then we have training right away when we get back at 11. We were supposed to get back at 7, but since the idiot who was driving doesn't know the difference between Technology and Power, we're skipping breakfast and probably lunch." Crash says as he comes up behind us. "But whatever, let's get this party going!"

He grabs his megaphone and directs everyone to go up the stairs to the 2nd floor, and then go into a room. I walk up the stairs and enter a room that has a drawing of a bird on it, because it reminded me of my dream. When I enter, I see that out of the 10 chairs in the room, only one is left. I run to it and sit down, and then a tall, skinny man walks in with a clipboard.

"Hello everyone. My name is Mac. I'm assuming you've been told on the rules of the game, so I won't talk about that anymore. Now, sit down and just relax. I'll be pushing a button which straps you into the chair so make sure you're in a comfortable position." He says, then gives us a minute to get comfortable.

"If you want, you can make the chair a bed, so you're lying down during the game." He adds, and then I find the button that makes it a bed, and then I lie down. A few people do it too, but some of them just sit down on their chairs.

"Now, I'll be strapping you in and then a helmet will be placed on your head. Got it? Enjoy the game." He smiles, pushes a button then leaves the room. A few metal straps pin me to the bed, but then after a while I don't feel anything because the helmet is put on me. As soon as it is tucked under my chin, I'm in another world.

No, actually I'm in District 7. I've been here a couple of times, so I know where I am right away. We're in the forest part of it, and I quickly climb a tree so that no one can see me while I pick my weapons. A hologram of a list opens before me, and since it's still dark here, I quickly choose my weapon so the light from the hologram won't give me location away. I choose the knives, since I'm most comfortable using them, and it doesn't matter what team I'm on if I have the knives. I can throw them, so I'll be good if I'm a banger or a sacker.

Soon the hologram goes away and is replaced by a smaller hologram, and it says sacker. It goes away and soon I'm in the darkness again. I climb onto another tree and see someone moving on the ground. I don't know if it's a banger or a sacker, so I observe myself and the person on the ground to see if we have any similarities or differences. I notice that my knives have a small, glowing green button on them, and the person on the ground's axe has a small, glowing red button.

I'm guessing that means he's a banger, so I get closer to him since I need to be within a three feet radius. I grab one of my knives and throw it at his neck, so he can't shout out in pain. He falls to the ground and I quickly look around to see if anybody saw.

I run up to him and grab my knife, but then a hologram appears and asks me if I want to keep his axe. I say no, because I'm happy with my knives. The hologram then tells me that I have just scored 100 points, because I got the first kill. I smile, then climb a tree again.

I keep swinging from tree to tree until an arrow almost hits me in the calf. I quickly hide, and then look around to see who my attacker was. I look in the direction from where the arrow came from and see a boy standing there. He's looking all around for me, but he can't see me. I climb onto a tree that is closest to him, and swing down to a branch so I'm right behind him. He's tall, so even though the lowest branch is a bit high, I can grab him and slice his throat.

I do, and then he falls to the ground. The hologram appears and asks me the same things but I decline it's offer, then it tells me that I just got 50 points for a sneak kill. I climb a tree again, and decide to keep moving.

I don't know where I'm going or how many people are "dead", but I just decide to "kill" whoever gets in my way, so that we can all go home. I come across some people fighting, and realize that they are fighting hand-to-hand. I swing over to them and see that their weapons are on the ground, so it's going to be hard to tell who my teammate is, and who to help.

After a while I just decide to shout at them to pick up their weapons and get it over with. At first they seemed startled to have heard someone so nearby but then they looked at each other and slowly grabbed their weapons and took stance. Right when I saw the guy pick up the mace with the glowing red dot, I threw my knife at him. The other guy who picked up the glowing green spear looked up at me and smiled.

It's Kendall, the guy who killed the green dummy who was across the room with his trident. I'm surprised he didn't pick it for this game. He walks over to me with his hands up and asks to be partners for this game.

"I don't see why not. We're only supposed to kill people who aren't our teammates, so yeah sure. Do you know how to climb?" I say, then realize it was a stupid question. Kendall's big and muscular, so even if he could climb trees, it would be hard for him to move around in one.

"Yeah, I do actually." He says, which surprises me. "But I'm much faster on the ground. You stay up there and I'll stay up here. If you see anyone coming for me, warn me me and I'll do the same for you, if I see anyone up in the trees. Doubt it though, since you're the youngest and smallest."

"Good plan. Where do we go, anyways? All the trees are the same height, so even if I climb up to see the arena, I won't see very far." I say, then he nods.

"Why don't you climb high enough to see if there are any glowing dots nearby, and I'll look around in the bottom, okay?" He says and I agree. I climb higher, and then see five glowing red dots nearby. I quietly go closer to Kendall and tell him, then says we'll do a sneak attack.

I swing over to them and Kendall follows closely, and soon we're high above them, in the trees. I hear them talking loudly, and I use this as time to talk to Kendall about our plan, since they probably won't hear us.

"I'll take three and you take two?" He says, and grins.

"Fine." I say, and climb over them so I'm directly on top of one of them. Kendall does the same and raises his fist. He lifts his pointer finger, then his middle finger and lastly his ring finger. He points down and then we jump, landing on the people below. I slash the neck of the one I'm on top of and then snap the neck of the other. Since Kendall is still finishing off his two and he has one left, I decide to do her myself. I throw my knife and it sticks in her eye, but I purposely don't kill her with it, so I can have a little fun.

Kendall finishes and looks over at me while I step on top of her. I pin her down even though she can barely move and taunt her with the knife. She can still see me through her left eye, the one I didn't stab, and I pretend to stick the knife in it, scaring her.

"Hurry up, Olivia. People might hear her scream." Kendall says, and I look up at him. I slash the girl's throat so she can't scream, but I don't slice her air pipe, so she can still breathe. I look up at Kendall who gives me a nod, and looks around to see if there are anymore glowing dots.

"Well, we each got 20 points for each kill. So I got 40 and you got 40, 60 when you finish her off. The weapons are a machete, a sword, a sickle, a mace and a trident. Want anything?" He asks.

"Nah, I'm happy with my knives. Here, you wanted three people. Finish her off. I'll climb and look for more people." I say, and then start climbing. After a few minutes, I hear Kendall climbing up behind me. Only when I turn around, it's not him. It's Seb, and his machete is glowing red.

"Hey, Seb." I smile, and throw a knife at him, but he ducks just in time. I swing down and soon I'm on the ground. Seb climbs down and smiles at me.

"Hey Olivia." He stops smiling and throws his machete at me but I duck, and it lands far away from him. I throw another knife but it just slashes his arm. He looks at it, frowns, and then dives towards me, grabbing my hips in an attempt to pin me down.

I step to the side before he grabs me and he falls to the ground. I kneel down on his shoulders so he can't move, and I sit on his back.

"Sorry Seb." I say sarcastically and grin. He turns his head so he can see me out of the corner of his eye and smiles. I stab him in the back of his neck using my knife, killing him instantly. I get up and just to be sure, I check his pulse. A hologram appears and tells me I earned 30 points, and I decline when it asks me if I want his machete.

I get up, retrieve my two knives that I threw at Seb, and then decide to look for Kendall. I climb a tree and swing to the trees going back to the place where I last saw him. When I get there, I see that his spear is on the ground, and glowing black. At first I thought this meant that he was dead, but then I realized that the people we killed are still there with their weapons glowing red.

He must have swapped his weapons. I look around, and realize that the trident is missing. But where is Kendall? I sigh, and decide to look for footprints. A while later, I find some going in the opposite direction I came from, and follow them. After a few minutes of walking, I see two dead bodies on the ground, and look to see if one of them is Kendall. It's not, they're just two people I don't recognize. I look at their weapons, but it's nothing I want. I continue looking for footprints, but I don't see any.

I guess he decided to climb. I pick a tree, and start climbing as well. After a few minutes of climbing, I decide that it's going to be useless finding him, and that I should just get more points.

I look around for glowing dots, and find ten glowing red dots in the distance, and one glowing red one close by. I climbed down my tree to sneak up on the girl, and then I slashed her throat and stole her poisonous blow darts. I got 20 points for it, and climbed up the tree again. I counted the darts, and I had fifteen. _Perfect_, I think.

I climb down lower and farther so that I'm directly on top of them, and shoot two darts at two of their necks, and they fall down to the ground. The people around them look around to see where it came from, and so I quickly climb to another tree. I do the same, except this time I take out three people.

Most of them look scared now, and I take this as an opportunity to kill more of them. I move to another tree, and shoot two more darts. I accidentally hit one of them in the chest, so it doesn't kill him instantly. I quickly shoot one more in his neck, and then he falls down.

I move to another tree and blow two more, leaving one left. I have about five more darts, and I decide to make the most out of them. I shoot one in his leg, the other in his arm, one in his cheek and the last one in his chest. He cries out in pain and can't move anymore, because of all the poison.

I climb down and leave him there, retrieve all the darts, and check all their weapons. I still don't want anything, and so I return to the guy who I didn't kill yet. I smile at him and blow one more in his neck, killing him. I get all the darts and check his weapons. It's a sword. At first I'm tempted to swap it, but then I decide I want my knives back.

While I swing back to my knives, I add up how much points I got. I got 20 points for each kill, except the last one. I got 50 for that. So that means that I got 230 points. I don't remember how much I points I have earned already, but I know it's over two hundred.

I swap my darts for my knives and climb again. Soon, I find Kendall, fighting a girl with blonde hair. I throw my knife at her and she falls to the ground.

"Oh, there you are! I've been looking all over for you." Kendall says, and comes near me. We each got ten points for killing her, since Kendall injured her badly.

"Where'd you go?" I ask.

"I climbed the tree I thought I saw you go in, but apparently it was the wrong tree. Wanna go with the same plan?"

"Sure. What's her weapon?" I ask, and look around.

"A mace. Wasn't that good at it though. I'm guessing she'll be going home."

"Not our problem." I say, and start climbing a tree. After a while, I call out to Kendall to tell him that there are a few people coming nearer. He climbs up the tree that is across from mine and we wait for the people to walk in between us.

When they do, Kendall jumps behind one of them and stabs him behind the back using his trident. I jump too, but on one of their backs. I grab my knife and slash her throat, then use her as a shield. I throw the knife I used to kill her at one of them, and it sticks itself in his heart. When they're all dead, I grab my knife and check their weapons. Another mace, a gold trident and a bow and arrow.

Kendall switches his silver trident for the gold one, and we continue moving. After a while I hear Kendall shout out in pain. I look below, and he's lying on the ground. There's a girl there, with an axe. She looks around, and when she looks in my direction, I see who it is. It's Marina.

I climb a tree that's behind her, climb down and stab her in the back. She falls on the ground and I stab her repeatedly. After that I check her pulse. She's dead, and so is Kendall. I start to climb a tree but then it disappears, and I fall on my back. Only it doesn't hurt like how it's supposed to. When I open my eyes, I'm back in the room. And everyone is awake, staring at me.


	4. Chapter 4

After I woke up, Mac came back into the room and said we have to go back to the train station. We all get up and leave, and then soon we're on the way back to District 4.

Even though I was lying down the whole time, I feel tired. I sit down near the edge and let my feet dangle over it. I lie down, and fall asleep. When I wake up again, I can smell the sea of District 4. It's nice being back. I didn't like District 3 that much. Well, maybe because I wasn't used to it, but whatever. When we arrive at the train station in District 4, we all go back to the training center.

"Now, it's 8:30 am." Crash says over the megaphone once we've all settled down. "Since you all played a good game, you'll have breakfast now. Head over to the eating area at 9 am. You will all have free time for half an hour. Try to do something productive. That is all."

It's 8:30 am? But we arrived in District 3 at about 6 am. Which means we probably started our game at 6:30, and it takes an hour to get from 3 to 4. That means we ended at 7:30. But that also means that our game was only an hour long, as supposed to three or four hours.

"Hey!" Shelly says as she walks up to me. "What team were you in?"

"Hey Shelly." I smile at her. "I was a sacker."

"Me too! We should've teamed up. Did you team up with anyone?"

"Me." Kendall says as he comes up behind me.

"Hey Kendall," I say. "Sorry I didn't see Marina in time and didn't warn you."

"Nah, it's fine. She snuck up behind me and you couldn't have seen cause you were up ahead." He says, and looks at Shelly. "How much points did you score?"

"I didn't keep track. I think they're showing everything when we see what team won though. Fingers-crossed it's us." She smiles.

"I bet it's going to be you guys." Finn says as he gives Shelly a kiss on the cheek. "Kendall and Olivia went on a total killing spree."

"We did?" Kendall smirks.

"Yeah. Especially you!" He says, looking at me. "You killed me with your poisonous blow darts." He laughs.

"Sorry Finn. Wasn't really looking at who I was killing." I say.

"That's so not true!" Seb says as he walks up to us with Harbor, Wave and Tide behind him. "You totally knew who I was."

"Whatever." I laugh, and then we all go to the eating area. When we get there, we have 10 minutes to spare so we decide to talk about our kills.

"Well, I killed about 10 people with my darts." I say, looking at Finn. "Then I don't really know about the rest. Oh, Seb and Marina. And some girl who I stole the darts from. That's all I remember though."

"I killed Tide and Harbor." Shelly says. "And some group of girls who looked too scared to move. They must've never been to a forest before. Or don't adapt quickly like most of us who've never been to a lot of places."

"I killed Wave." Tide says, nudging him. "And I almost got Kendall, but then Shelly killed me before I could throw my spear."

"I killed most of the girls on the red team. And some guys." Wave says with a shrug. Just then, Crash opens the door to the eating area and tells us to go in, but don't sit down yet. After a few minutes, we're all complete and Crash tells us to look for our names and sit down. I find it a few tables away from where I was originally standing, and then I sit down. Finn comes up to me and sits down on my right, smiling at me.

"Thanks for not killing me so brutally." A brown-haired girl says as she sits down on my left. It's the girl I stole the darts from.

"No problem." I say and smile and then we both laugh.

"I'm Taylor." She says.

"I'm Olivia." I smile at her again, and then we hear Crash's voice.

"Now, there should be an envelope in front of you. If you see a "stay", well, you're allowed to stay. If you see a "home", you're going home. Got it? Now, if you see a "home", you have to pack your bags, and be at the gates by 10. You're allowed to eat breakfast here, but that's all. You can now open your envelope." He says, and then leaves the room.

When I open my envelope, I see a blank paper. I look at Finn, who is looking at his paper that says, "stay". He looks at me, and then smiles. I show him my blank paper.

"Turn it over." He laughs.

"Oh." I say, and flip it over. It says "stay". I laugh at myself and look over to Taylor. It's says "home". Obviously, I don't know what to say. I'm the one who killed her. If I didn't, her paper would probably have said "stay".

"Taylor…" I begin, but then she stops me.

"No, that's okay. It was my fault I wasn't careful. Have fun okay?" She says, smiles, and leaves. I don't know if my mind was playing tricks on me but it seems like she wanted to leave.

"That was weird." Finn says as he gets up to get food. "C'mon, I'm starving."

After breakfast, we all go to the training room, and we pick a slip from a bowl. When I open mine, it says, "knives".

"Sweet! What'd you get?" Seb calls out to me.

"Knives. You?"

"Machete." He says, grinning. "Well, I already know how to use it but it's always nice learning new things."

"You obviously need more practice since you couldn't kill me." I grin back at him and walk towards the knife station. When I get there, my trainer isn't there yet, so I just decide to observe my target. I walk towards it and see that it's a little thicker than my target in District 2, but I remember that one of my old trainers said that it shouldn't make much of a difference.

"Now, before we begin, as you all obviously know, people were sent home today. Can any of you guess how much?" Crash says over his megaphone.

"27?" Brooke says over at her station.

"Good, did you count?" Crash smiles at her. "Anyways, 27 people were sent home. It's a lot more than what we usually send home on the second evaluation, but what's done is done."

"So only 8 more people have to go home, and then we start training for real?" One of the eighteen year-old boys says.

"Yup, and we're going to see who those 8 are tonight at dinner." Crash says and leaves the room. I turn back to look at the targets, but I hear the sound of metal spinning towards me. I turn around and blade spinning towards me. I time it correctly so I can catch its handle, which is very hard to do, but I manage. I position myself to throw it back at my attacker but then a tall, dark and stocky man who was in a throwing position now holds his hands above his head.

"Don't throw. I was just testing your attentiveness. I'm Pelagic, but you can call me Lag. I hate the name my parents gave me." He says, and walks towards me with his hand stretched out, gesturing me to give me his knife back.

"I'm Olivia." I say, but before handing him the knife I say, "How do I know you're not going to throw it at me again?"

"Because I'm your trainer." He says, and smiles. I hand him the knife and we begin training. At first I show him what I can already do, and then he just gives me tips. He says that I'm already an expert at it and I don't need much help, but training days are not to be wasted, so he has me throw at some dummies.

Just then, a loud cry comes out from behind me. I see Lag stiffen as he looks back to where the noise came from, and when I turn around, I see why. Seb's on the floor, surrounded by a pool of blood. I start to walk over to him, but Lag puts his hand in front of me.

"Stay here." He says, and walks over to him. The trainers all do the same and soon all 37 of us are in the knife station, looking over at number 38, Seb.

"What's going to happen to him?" A teary-eyed Shelly says as she walks up to me with Finn holding her hand tightly and comforting her.

"I don't know." I say, then add, "Why are you crying?"

"Because I saw it happen. The snare-making station is right next to the machete station, and I saw it happen." She says, then the tears start falling from her eyes.

"What happened?" I say.

"His trainer accidentally sliced his waist open. There's a big cut along his stomach, and blood started spilling out of him and he collapsed and… and… and then…" She begins, but she's running out of breath because she's crying.

"Don't continue. You might upset yourself even more." I say, and start comforting her.

"I almost vomited. It was like I could see it happen in slow motion. I keep seeing it over and over again." She says, and then her knees give in and she sinks to the floor. "Is he going to…?"

"Nope." I say, before she can say the word. _Die_. "Was it… deep?"

"I don't think so." She says, but apparently it's so bad that we have to cancel training for today. As we walk out I see Seb, who's on the stretcher. He's just lying there, and he looks so pale. I look at his chest, and thankfully I see it rise, and then collapse. At least he's still breathing. When we pass him, I squeeze his hand, which is really cold, to let him know that he's going to be okay. Before we disappear around the corner, I look at his stomach. There's a red blanket over him, but after I look closely I see that it's actually a white blanket, covered in blood.

"What's going to happen to him?" A very scared Shelly asks once we're all inside my room. After we were told training was cancelled, we decided to stay together.

"I don't know." Wave says, holding Tide. She was near Seb too, and saw the cut. She said it was pretty deep, but she wasn't sure. Out of all the good friends I've made here in District 4 so far, only 6 are in my room. Shelly, Finn, Wave, Tide, Kendall and I are in my room; Seb's in the hospital and Harbor got sent home.

"Let's change the subject." Tide suggests.

"Okay, um… Who got sent home?" Kendall says, sitting beside me.

"Harbor did." Wave says.

"And Taylor." I say. So far, that's all I know. Finn seems to know a lot though, but I space out and just stare out the window until someone knocks on my door.

"Dinner time." The voice says, and we all head to the eating area. Most of us are really hungry, since we didn't have lunch. When we get there, we see no name cards, even though they said they were sending home 8 people today. We get food and all sit down on a table next to the stage. Just then, Seb comes in, in a wheelchair. He's wearing his jeans, but no shirt, because there's a huge bandage across his stomach. He wheels over to us and Wave gets him food.

"Hey guys." He says.

"What happened?" I say.

"You know, got sliced. No biggie." He says and takes a bite of the hamburger Wave got him. He winces when he swallows. "I also had stitches done, and it took like 900 hours."

"No it didn't." Kendall says, and they start laughing. Crash comes in and gets food, then takes a seat next to Shore. After dinner, Crash stands up on the stage and ons his megaphone.

"Now, guys. 8 people are going home tonight, but technically only 7 were picked. Seb _has_ to go home because his gash is too deep. Sorry, buddy. It's too bad actually because he was really good. Anyways, see you next year, yeah?" Crash says and gets a paper out of his pocket. "Now, I'll be reading the people who are going home. Tomorrow at breakfast, there will be an envelope on your plate. Inside, there will be a paper with a number on it. The number determines the number of people you will live with, and the order of which the picking will commence. Got it? Oh, and pack your things, since we're all leaving tomorrow."

He clears his throat and says, "Sandy. Cove. Coral. Morgan. Bay. Kai and Oceana. Oh, and Seb." When he's done, I let out a sigh of relief because it's no one I know that well and so I don't have to feel bad. Well, except for Seb. I guess he's an exception though, since he wasn't really supposed to leave. Oh well. We all say bye to Seb since we won't be seeing him for a while.

"Bye Seb." I say, and give him a light hug, since I don't want to hurt him. "Guess we can't go jogging anymore, huh?"

"Whatever." He says, and we laugh. He winces after a while though. "Sorry, it hurts when I do something with my stomach. I wasn't even supposed to eat. I just got so hungry."

I laugh and hug him one last time, and say bye. After that I walk to my room and shut the door. I change to my pajamas and lie in bed. I'm about to fall asleep when I remember I have to pack. Most of my things are still in my suitcase, but for the things that I used, I put them in my duffel bag. I can wash them later. I do one last check of everything in the room to make sure I didn't leave anything behind. The only things I leave out are my toothbrush and toothpaste, my hairbrush, and my clothes for tomorrow.

We were told to wear our training clothes, so that's what I left out for tomorrow. I make a mental note to remember to put my toothbrush, toothpaste and hairbrush back in my duffel bag. Before I go to sleep, I brush my teeth and brush my hair, and then I lie back down in bed. I fall asleep quite quickly, and soon am being waken up by Shelly, who's in her pajamas.

"Wake up!" She shouts, and smiles at me. She opens the curtains in my room and this really wakes me up, because it's so bright.

"Wow, you're happy. What time is it?" I ask, and rub my eyes.

"6." She says and beams at me.

"Isn't breakfast at 7:30?" I say, and lie back down into bed, with my face in the pillow so I don't see any light. However, Shelly pulls me up and so I sit back down. Looking at her now, I see that she looks slightly different. Her brown hair, which usually falls down in curls is now a lighter shade than usual, and is straight.

"Yeah, but we're going to get ready together! Since it's one of the first times that we're going to see the Victors, a good first impression can't hurt!" She says, and Tide comes in.

"Whoa." I say as she does. She looks very different. Her red hair, which is usually in a ponytail, now has a black streak in it. She usually wears glasses, but I guess today she's wearing contacts. She's not wearing her retainers, but now I don't see why she even bothers wearing them; her teeth are really straight. She's not wearing that much make-up, but she still looks different. "You look nice."

"Thanks." She says and smiles at me. "Your turn." At first I didn't want to, but Shelly and Tide kept insisting, so I said okay. They made me listen to music so I couldn't hear them discuss what their plans were and they also made me wear this blindfold while they were doing my hair. However, when it was time to do the make-up, they made my face away from the mirror; so I didn't really know what I was going to look like. While the song faded out so the next one could play, I heard Shelly say something about not to much make-up, so I'm very grateful since I don't like make-up that much. And finally after a few minutes, they were done.

"Voila!" Shelly says, and Tide and I laugh at her. "What?" She says, and spins me around. My draw almost drops when I look in the mirror. I don't even look like me. My long, straight blonde hair now falls down in curls, and the tips are bright pink, but it starts to fade as it rises. It looks nice, and I thank them for it.

"Thankfully, your roots aren't that dark so it looked nice. You know, blonde to pink. Rather than brown to blonde to pink." Tide says. I look again, and notice that I'm not wearing any make-up. I ask them about it but they just shrugged and said, "You look better without it."

We all go back to our rooms to change and agreed that we'll meet up back in my room in 10 minutes, so we can walk up together. When they leave, I grab my clothes and change. When I finish, I brush my teeth, brush my hair and put them back in my duffel bag, along with my pajamas that I wore last night. Soon, Shelly's back and Tide comes awhile after. "Let's go?" They say, and I grab my things. As we walk up, I decide to ask, "Do all the Victors come to this?"

"Only the ones that are chosen. Also, if you're alone with the Victor, you don't come back next year. You live with them until you're 17." Shelly says, and soon we're in the eating area. We find Finn, Wave and Kendall sitting there already, and they wave us to come over to them.

"Hey boys." Shelly says as she sits on Finn's lap. Kendall raises his eyebrows at me questioningly and I point at Shelly and sit beside him. We laugh, and then Tide sits in between her brother and Kendall.

"Wow, you guys look pretty today." Finn says, looking at both of us. Shelly playfully hits him and he raises his eyebrows. "What? You look pretty everyday." He says, and he kisses her. Tide throws her bread at him and scowls. "Thanks Finn." She says, and laughs.

"Aw, don't worry. You're pretty everyday too…" Finn says, looking at Tide, but then turns to me, "Olivia." He turns back to Tide and throws her bread back at her. We all laugh except Tide, and Kendall puts his arm around her and says, "I think you're pretty too." Wave sees and smacks Kendall's hand away and now we all laugh.

After a while, Crash comes in and tells us to hurry up eating breakfast and then go to the training area. Everyone in our table is done so we all go there. When we get there, I see that all the Victors are standing in a line. It's quite scary seeing them all standing there, since they're all so… Intimidating. We walk over to Crash, and he each gives us an envelope.

"We were supposed to give these to you guys earlier, but Shore forgot to set it them up." He says as he gives them to us. The rest come and when we're all complete and have our envelopes, he tells us to line up by height starting from the tallest. I'm the shortest, which means I'll see who I'm going to live with last. We're all in line now, and the first one to go is Finn. He steps up on the platform beside Crash and opens his envelope. He smiles and walks up to a tall, dark man and high-fives him.

"You're supposed to read who you got, Finn." Crash says, to which Finn says, "Reef." I hear the girl in front of me groan and say, "Again?" Next up is Maria, Sprinkle and Captain, the triplets. They all get some girl named Elizabeth, except Maria who gets Reef. I don't really pay attention to who gets called next but my attention returns when the girl in front of me gets called.

She walks up to the stage and smiles when she sees the person she's going to live with. She walks up to him and high-fives him. Crash rolls his eyes and says, "Terri, you're supposed to call out the name." She rolls her eyes too and says, "What for? Everyone knows who Reef is." Crash nods, and turns to me. "Last one." He says, and motions for me to come forward. As I do, I look at all the other Victors. There are some with no kids at all, and most of them look happy. I'm guessing having a lot of people interrupting the way you live can be disturbing sometimes. I look at the people who have a lot of kids though, and they look happy too. I wonder who I'm going to get.

"Ready?" Crash whispers.

"Yup." I say, take a deep breath and open my envelope. I look up before I read the name and look at all the people without any kids yet. I wonder if I'm going to get one of them and not see any of these people for 6 years, or if I'm going to get the ones with a lot of kids and see everyone next year. I think I'd like that. I don't even know why I'm so nervous. I look down at my name and tilt my head a bit because I don't know who it is, because the name doesn't even ring a bell.

I turn to Crash and tell him, "I don't know who it is."

"Just read it." He tells me reassuringly.

I take a deep breath and say, "Finnick."


	5. Chapter 5

A tall, young man looks up. I'm guessing that's Finnick, so I walk over to him. I hear Crash tell us to grab our things and say our goodbyes.

"Um, I've never really done this before. I guess I'll meet you out front in a couple of minutes so you can say bye." He says, then walks out the door. I wonder what he's going to teach me. I'm guessing something to do with throwing, since his arms are the most muscular part of his body. I turn around and begin walking to the door when Shelly comes up to me and starts squealing.

"What's wrong?" I shout over her screaming so she could hear me.

"I can't believe you got Finnick!" She shouts and jumps around.

"Why? Is he bad?" I ask. She laughs and Finn joins us. "On the contrary, he's actually really good. I think he's the youngest Victor in District 4 so far. He's like 17. I think he won three years ago." Finn says, and then adds, "Wait, you're the only one assigned to him, right?"

"Yeah, why? Is that bad?" I ask.

"Why do you always think everything is bad?" Shelly laughs, and then says, "Oh wait, I guess it kind of is. I mean, we won't see you for another, 6 years. If he lets you out I guess we can see each other but still, it's going to be pretty weird not seeing you around as much. But, it's good. I mean 6 years with _Finnick Odair_. Have you seen his eyes?"

I shake my head and Finn shoots her a look so she says, "But I still love you more." We laugh and hug, and then start to look for the others. We find Wave and Tide first, and we say bye to each other. They all left to go to the Victors so they could start training already, so I grab my stuff and go out the door. I don't find Finnick at first, but that's probably because I only looked at him once.

I do find Kendall though, and we hug and say bye. When he leaves, I start looking for Finnick again. I see him by the bike stand, and he's waiting there. I walk over to him and say hi.

"Um, I thought I wouldn't get anyone this year, so I just biked. The Village isn't that far though." He says, and I nod. He gets on his bike and says, "We can switch halfway."

"That's okay, I don't know how to bike." I say, and then he says, "Really? I can teach you. I mean, obviously I'm supposed to teach you how to fight too, but we can blow over training one day and I can teach you."

"Thanks." I say, and we start moving. "Sorry, by the way. Sorry I'm stuck with you for the next 6 years." He looks at me and laughs. "Why is that funny?" I ask, and then he says, "Well, the house does get lonely sometimes. And wait, you don't know me, do you?"

"Nope." I say, and look at him. He laughs and says, "That's good."

"Why?" I ask, and then he says he'll tell me when we get to the house. "So, what do you know how to use?" He asks, changing the subject.

"Mostly things you can throw. Swords too, and I'm pretty good and hand-to-hand." I say, and he asks, "Trident?"

"What?"

"Can you use a trident?"

"Nope. I've been trying to learn in the training center, but there was never an opportunity." I say.

"I think that's why they gave you to me. I'm pretty handy with one. And knots, too." He says. Soon, we arrive in what I'm guessing is the Victor's Village. It's pretty different from the one back in 2, but it's still nice. It's by the sea, and Finnick bikes over to one and puts his bike in the garage. "Nice car." I say, and then he says, "Thanks, my dad gave it to me. It doesn't work though, since I'm not that good with cars. I like fishing more, and doing other things."

"I am. Good with cars, I mean." I say, and we walk into his house. He tells me to leave my stuff by the door, so he can give me a tour. He shows me around the house, and when he tells me where my room is, I grab my stuff and put it inside. He tells me I can unpack and then he leaves.

I unpack a bit, but then I smell something really good coming from outside. I follow the smell and find myself in the kitchen, and he's cooking. I knock on the door and he turns around and smiles at me. "You can sit down if you want. Do you cook? You can help if you want." He says, and but I shake my head. "I don't cook, but I can fix up your car." He smiles at me and says, "Deal."

I smile at him back and walk into the garage. I braid back my hair and grab Finnick's toolbox, which is super dusty and looks like it hasn't been used in a while. I wipe them and then grab the keys and test the engine. When I do, it makes a weird sound and I immediately know what's wrong. I step out of the car and open the hood, where smoke from the engine puffs out. I wait for the smoke to clear out and then start working on his engine. It takes awhile, since his engine was pretty busted, but eventually I got it done. When I'm done, I close the hood and grab the keys again, and then started the engine. I smile when I hear the familiar sound of the engine revving, and then I shut it off and go inside. I didn't know how messy I was until Finnick pointed it out, saying, "I hope my car is cleaner than you."

I look down at my shirt and laugh, because my training shirt is now mostly covered in oil and dust. "Sorry. I fixed up your car though!" I say, and beam at him. He laughs and says, "Too bad I can't drive yet."

"Why not?" I ask, and then he shrugs and says, "Cause I'm only 17. I was supposed to get my student license last year but I ditched the test."

"So I just fixed your car for nothing?" I ask, and I laugh. He laughs too and says, "Well, technically no. There's another test in a few weeks so if I pass that I can use the car." I don't really say anything after that so he shuts off the stove and grabs two plates and then sets them on the island counter. He opens a drawer and grabs two spoons, forks and knives, and then hands them to me. I set them up beside the plates and he grabs two glasses. He tells me to sit down and he walks over to the fridge.

"Water or beer?" He asks, looks back at me, and smiles. I laugh and he fills our cups with something black, and then adds ice. He sits down across me and hands me the drink. "What's this?" I ask, and smell it. He laughs at me and says it's a soda, and when I take a sip it tastes bubbly and yummy. "That's so good." I say, and then he stands up and grabs the pan from the stove. He fills my plate with something pink and fills his plate too. I grab my fork and knife, and begin slicing it. "It's salmon." He says once I put it in my mouth. I smile and swallow it and then say, "It's good." He smiles at then begins eating his food. We eat in silence for a while since I don't know what to say, but then he breaks the silence by saying, "You know, it's weird how I cooked for you and you fixed my car but I don't know your name yet."

"Olivia." I say and smile.

"Oh," He says, and then asks, "How old are you?"

"11. You're 17? You don't look 17." He looks at me like he's offended but then laughs and says, "Yeah, I get that a lot."

"When'd you win?" I ask, and then he says, "About 3 years ago… Yeah, it was 3 years. I was 14."

"Wow." I say, and then he asks, "So you live here alone?"

"Not anymore." He says and smiles at me. He finishes his food before me and puts his plate in the sink. I finish awhile after him and do the same. I sit back down and look at him. He looks at me back and says, "Well, I guess we need to talk about how we're going to do this."

"What do you mean?" I ask, and he stands up grabs a piece of paper and pen out of a drawer. He sits back down and shrugs, and then says, "Like, how're we going to this? You know, what time do you want to wake up and train and when do you wanna rest and stuff."

I nod and then say, "Well, we should start training early, but not to early. Like, 7?"

"That's so early!" He says, and then laughs. "How about 9? We can wake up at 7, eat at 8 and then train at 9." I laugh and say, "That's so much better than my plan. Anyways, how about lunch at 1? Then training again at 2, then dinner at about…"

"7?" He says, finishing my sentence for me. I nod and then say, "I can write it down." I get the paper and pen for him and draw our schedule. I draw a sun for when we wake up and then swords, knives, tridents and other weapons for the time when we have to train. I draw food for when we have to eat, and then I hand it to him. "You're good at drawing." He says, and heads for the fridge. He sticks the paper on it using a magnet and looks back at me. "Wanna start now or tomorrow?"

I shrug so he says, "Let's start tomorrow. I'm so tired." He heads towards the living room and I follow him. He sits on one side of the couch and so I sit on the other. "Do you watch cartoons?" He asks, and grabs the remote. I nod and then he says, "You know, you look familiar. I just don't know how. It's like I've seen you before."

"I get that a lot." I say, and look back at the TV. He does the same and we sit in silence for a while, but then I say, "What do you do for fun?" He points at the TV so I say, "Seriously?" He laughs and shakes his head, and then shuts off the TV and stands up. He tells me to change into something that can get wet so I change into my waterproof running shorts and an old t-shirt, and then I slip on my slippers. He brings me to his backyard and tells me to wait for a while. While he's gone, I take a look at his backyard. It's huge, no kidding. There are two parts, grass and sand. The grassy part is closer to his house, and then it changes to sand, as it gets closer to the water, which connects all the houses here in The Village. When he comes back, he's holding two tridents and two nets, and then one of each to me. He walks towards the water and sits on the sand, with his feet barely touching the water. I sit down next to him and he starts detangling the net.

"What are we doing?" I ask as he teaches me how to detangle mine. He looks at me weirdly and says, "We're fishing."

"Oh" I say, but then I add, "With a trident?"

"Yeah… What's wrong with that?" He asks and looks at me weirdly. I look at him weirdly back and say, "Nothing, I just thought tridents were used to kill people." I put my hand over my mouth and say, "Sorry."

He laughs at me and says, "Oh, right. You're the girl who transferred from 2, right? This is going to be interesting." He stands up once my net is detangled and tells me to remove my slippers. I do, and then we wade slowly into the water. "Here, look." He says, and throws his net into the water. I don't see anything, but apparently he does and he throws his trident into the water and when he pulls it out, there're two fishes attach to it.

"Wow." I say, and he nods, and then throws the fishes into the bucket of water he has on shore. He teaches me how to do it, and at first it's hard to do, but then eventually I get it and catch three fishes. When we finish, we look at all the fish we caught and throw back the small ones. He asks me to move the fish into the bucket with fresh water, so we can throw the sea water back. I try to, but then when I touch the fish and bring it out of the water it feels slippery and gross so I immediately throw it onto the sand. I wipe my hands on my shirt and Finnick just laughs at me.

"You know, for a girl who's not supposed to be scared of anything, that fish pretty scared the shit out of you." He laughs again, but the says, "Oh, sorry. I forgot you're only 11."

"I'm not scared. Just grossed out." I say, and smirk at him. He laughs harder and says, "And I'm guessing you're not afraid of blood." I shake my head and he laughs again, but then grabs the fish and holds it out to me. I shake my head again and move back, so then he brings it closer and puts it's face right next to mine, and I move back so quickly that I lose my balance and fall into the water. Finnick drops the fish into the water because he fell down too, but because of laughing too hard.

"Nice going, genius." I say once he notices that the fish swam away. He laughs and says, "I'm not the one who fell into the water. And I'm not the one who's afraid a fish!" I glare at him and stand up, and then pin him to the floor. I smirk at him and say, "At least I didn't get pinned down by an 11 year-old girl."

I get off him and move the rest of the fish into the other bucket without dropping them, and he says, "Not bad." I smile at him and then he brings the fish inside, and I empty out the other bucket. I bring the bucket to the garage and put it on top of the other one, and then wipe my hands and go inside.

"What're we going to do now?" I say as I dry myself with the towel Finnick handed me. He left to go to the kitchen but when he returns I can see him coming nearer to me holding something I can't see, because I'm looking down, and he says, "We can train. Rule number one, 'Never let your guard down'." As he says this, I look up and see the fish he's holding in his hands right in front of my face. Since I saw him coming, I didn't get scared, but I still grab the fish and throw it at him. It accidentally lands on his face but he catches it, and then he glares at me. I drop the towel and start running, but soon Finnick's right behind me holding the fish. I sprint forward and out the backdoor, and when we're in his backyard, I look back to see him just come out of the door. Since he's taller than me, he catches up pretty quickly, but since I'm faster I can get away easily.

We run for a while but then he catches me and throws the fish at my leg, and I purposely fall down. I'm on my back and holding my knee, pretending to be hurt and he runs towards me and kneels down. "What happened? Are you okay?" He asks, looking concerned. I try to reach for the fish without him knowing, and when I get a good grip on it, I mumble something to him.

"What?" He says, and puts his ear right next to my mouth. I smile and try to hold back my laugh as I say, "Rule number one, 'Never let your guard down'." I grab the fish again and slap it on his face, and scramble to my feet running into the house. I hear Finnick laugh and he chases me again, but this time I decide to hide. Since the backdoor is in the kitchen, I decide to hide there, since he'll probably think I ran into the house. I quickly climb into the cabinet under the sink and make sure to leave it a little bit open, so I can see what he's doing. He runs in a few seconds after I climb in, and he runs into the living room. I can hear him run around the house, and after awhile he's just walking around, calling me.

"Olivia? Where are you? Seriously, I'm starting to get worried." I let out a small laugh because he sounds so scared, but then I clasp my hand over my mouth, because he looks towards the kitchen. He walks inside, with that stupid fish in my hands, and one by one starts opening the lower cabinets. He starts with the one closest to him, and makes his way towards the last, which is a few cabinets after mine, which means he'll get to me soon. The cabinet a few feet away from mine gets stuck, and he puts the fish on the counter so he can open it, because I bet he thinks I'm in there.

He tries to open it again and again, but it's really stuck, so he tries one last time, and I take this as my opportunity to run. He grabs onto the handle of the cabinet door and I burst out of mine, sprinting towards the door. I see Finnick stand up and run towards me, and when he catches up to me he grabs me by the waist and pulls me to the ground. By this point I'm so out of breath I can't even speak, because of all the laughing and running. When we've both calmed down, we go back inside to make dinner. I offer to make it, and go upstairs and get something in my bag. I go back down and go cook. When I finish, I grab two bowls and fill them with the food I made. I also grab two spoons and two glasses filled with soda, and then call Finnick. He tells me to get my food and we go out to the beach, and we eat there.

It's sunset now, and the water looks so nice. "This is so good. What is it?" Finnick asks, and I say, "Mac n' cheese." He laughs and says, "Seriously?"

I nod and we eat again, and when we finish we lie down and look at the stars. "How come you don't live with your parents?" I ask, as he points out Orion's Belt. I see him shrug and then he adds, "Well, I've always kind of hated them. I always wanted to leave; I just couldn't, because I didn't have a place to go. So when I got called, it was like silver lining. I mean, if I would die, I wouldn't have to live with them, and if I would win, I wouldn't have to live with them."

I scoff then say, "So you'd rather die than live with them?" He shakes his head then said, "Well, I knew I could win, to be honest. My father taught me how use a trident and I thought, well, how different could a fish be from a human?"

"Yeah, I kind of hate mine too. Actually, I do." I say.

"Why? Cause they sent you here?" He says, and then I shake my head. "Nah, I like it here. I hate them because… Well, they're never there for me." I say, but it was an obvious understatement.

"Same here." He says, and then asks, "How come they're never there for you?"

"Well, my mom died when I was young, so I can't really blame her for that." I say, and then he says, "Oh, sorry. What about your dad?"

"He sent me away to 2 because he said I 'killed' her, because I was in the car crash too. Cato told me it was because I look too much like her though. Oh, Cato's my friend, by the way."

He sits up and then asks "Wait, are you President Snow's dau–?"

"Yeah." I say, cutting him off. "He doesn't treat me like one though, so I don't treat him like my dad. Wow, I haven't told anyone that in a while."

He half-smiles and says, "Yeah, well parents can be asses sometimes." He gets his bowl and holds out his hand to me. We walk inside and put the dishes in the sink. We sit back down on the counter and he says, "Well, we have to talk about something very important." I nod and he says, "Who's going to do the dishes?"

I laugh and he says, "What? It _is _important." I nod and say, "Well, I can do them on the days that are even, and you can do them on odd days."

"What'd you mean?" He asks.

"Well, like today. It's the 21st, which that's an odd number, so that means you'll do them. I'll do them tomorrow, which is the 22nd." He nods and then says, "Wait, but I don't want to do them today!"

"It's the 21st." I say, but I help him do it anyway. When we finish, he tells me to go to sleep so it'll be easy to wake up tomorrow. "Night." I say, and then we hug before heading off to go to our rooms. I walk to my room and change into my pajamas, and then go to bed. It takes me a while to sleep, because I'm thinking of all the things that happened today. I think about how much fun I had today, even though we barely know each other. I think about how much fun training's going to be tomorrow, and how much fun the next 6 years is going to be, when we become closer.

I think about how I hope we're going to be good friends, and I go to sleep with the thought that maybe he'll be like a dad to me, protecting me and teaching me things, even though he's only 6 years older than me. I also go to sleep with the thought that maybe I've made a friendship that would last forever, and I go to sleep happy. And it's been a while since I've been happy.


	6. Chapter 6

Ice cold water. That's the first thing I feel when I wake up on a Sunday morning. I jump up and grab my knife, which was under my pillow. My eyes are wet and I didn't have time to wipe them yet so I just swing blindly in the air. I feel arms wrap around me from behind and pin me to the floor.

"Happy birthday!" I hear a familiar voice shout. "I can't believe you're finally 17!" I quickly get out of the hold and pin Finnick to the floor.

"I hate you." I say to Finnick, who just threw a bucket of ice cold water in my face at 5 in the morning on a Sunday. He smiles at me and says, "Happy birthday!"

I laugh and get off him, and sit on the floor. He gets up and grabs a towel, which was on the chair. He wipes himself, and then throws it to me, and it lands on my head. I grab it and dry myself off too, and then he leaves to go to the kitchen. I follow him and reach into the pantry to grab my favorite cereal, and then I grab a bowl and a spoon.

"Think fast!" I hear and catch the milk bottle that Finnick just threw at me. I smirk at him and fill my cereal bowl with milk. I toss the milk back to him and he throws me a spoon. I catch it and sit on the chair in the kitchen. He starts blending something in the blender and sits down in front of it. When it's done, he pours it in two separate glasses and hands me one.

"What is that?" I say and stare at it.

"It's good, try it." He says, and drinks his. I don't really want to drink it, because it looks gross. It's brown with bits of green but I drink it anyway. It's cold, but surprisingly really, really good.

"What is it?" I say while drinking it.

"A whole bunch of stuff. The green stuff are these peppermint things," He says and holds up a bag. "And it's brown because I put in chocolate. Then there are some fruits in here too, and some energy stuff, but you can barely taste it."

"It's really good." I say and finish mine. I finish my cereal too, and then put my dishes in the sink. "Whose turn is it today?" I ask.

"Yours, but since it's your birthday I'll do it." He says and puts his glass in the sink too.

"So are we having training today?" I say and sit back down on the chair. He doesn't reply, he just walks to the living room. He comes back a few seconds later and hands me the mail. I look through it and surprisingly I find one for me. It's from the Capitol.

"What's this?" I say as I open it. I frown as I see whom it's from, and leave it on the table and sit on the couch next to Finnick, who's watching cartoons on TV. Not only is it a letter from the Capitol but also, it's a letter from my dad.

"Did you read it?" Finnick says, but keeps his eyes on the TV. I shake my head which he can see from the corner of his eye, and he says, "You have to read it, it's important."

"How do you know?" I ask. He reaches in front of him and grabs another letter, which is identical to mine. "He sent me one too, because he knows I'll read it and make you read yours." He says, and then stands up to get mine, which is in the kitchen. "You have to read it." He says as he hands it to me.

I sigh, get the letter and go to my room. I remember the first time I came here. I was only 11, and that was the day we were going to see if who we would live with. I was the last to know who I would live with, because my last name is Snow. Since I was the only one assigned to Finnick, which meant that I would live with him until I was 17, and that's how old I am today. Technically though, I have to go back to District 2 next week, when this training camp ends. That's why I'm so surprised when I read the letter my dad gave me.

"Dearest Olivia, happy birthday. How are you? I haven't spoken to you in a while," He writes, and I think, _no shit_. "You might not know this, but District 2's camp ends today. My gift to you is that you will leave Finnick Odair's household and stay in District 2 until I write you again. Pack for at least a few days. Sincerely, Dad."

I reread it just to see if my eyes have played a trick on me. Go back to District 2? I haven't been there in 6 years. What will happen to Finnick? I can't just leave him here alone. He's taken care of me since I was 11. He's practically like family. I leave the letter on my bed and go downstairs. I sit beside Finnick and ask him, "Should I go?"

He looks at me like I'm crazy and says, "Of course you should go! Go pack your things, we have to be at the train station by 7." I smile at him and say, "You're coming?"

He stands up and ruffles my hair. He walks over to his room and says, "Duh, I'll never leave you. Now go pack." I walk to my room and grab my duffel bag. I pack enough clothes to last me for 4 days, and then go shower. When I'm done, I grab some comfy clothes and make sure I have everything ready. It's only about 6, so I grab my bag and go downstairs. I leave my bag by the door and sit on the couch. I open the TV and watch some cartoons. Soon, Finnick comes out of his room, grabs the remote from me and sits down. He changes the channel and I try to grab the remote back from him but he holds it away from me. I reach out my hand to try to get it but he throws it on the other couch, which is across the room, and starts tickling me. Soon, I run out of breath because I'm laughing so hard. I get up and run to the couch and grab the remote and change the channel.

"Too bad we have to leave." He smirks at me and grabs the remote back, and turns it off. He goes back to his room and comes back a few seconds later with his bag. We walk to the door and on the way out I grab my bag. We then go into the garage and grab our bikes. I put my bag in my basket and get on my bike and then I go onto the road and wait for Finnick to join me.

"Coming?" I tease him. He glares at me and gets on his bike. He tells me the directions, since I've never biked to the train station before. When he's sure I know where to go, we count down from 10. When we reach 1, we race to the train station. He got a head start since my foot slipped from the pedal when we began, but I'm a faster biker so I beat him. When I reach the train station a few minutes before Finnick, I see a girl by the benches. I bike near her and smile because I was right about who I thought it was.

"Annie!" I shout, get off my bike and run the rest of the way to where she is. She takes a while to notice someone called her but when she looks at me she smiles back and stands up. She opens her arms and I run into them, and she hugs me back. Since I was running, I almost knocked her over, but I didn't and we just laugh. We hug for a while, and when we pull away I see she looks confused.

"I came to say goodbye, and I brought you an apple." She says and looks around but then says, "Well, I had it somewhere." I laugh at her and reach behind her and grab the apple. "This one?" I say, and bite into it.

"Yeah, and I brought one for Finnick." She says, and looks around. "But I see he changed his mind about going with you." Just then, Finnick arrives and frowns when he sees me.

"I thought I saw someone like you way behind me, and then I thought for once I would win." He says as he comes nearer to us, and then I step aside so he can hug Annie. They hug for a long time so I decide to go over to my bike and grab my bag. Since I jumped off my bike to run, it's on the ground so I had to pick it up and bring it over to the bike hold. I get my bike lock out of the basket and make sure it's secure before I go over to them. They're still hugging when I walk over to them, so I say, "Sorry Annie, but we have to go. It's already 7."

Finnick shoots me a look since I ruined their moment, but then Annie laughs at him and he smiles at her. They kiss, and then he grabs his bike and parks it beside mine. He grabs his bag and then we walk up the steps to the train station. Before we enter the doors though, Annie runs up and hugs me and then says, "Happy birthday! I almost forgot, here you go." She says, and hands me a charm of a mermaid. I smile at it and attach it to the charm bracelet Annie and Finnick gave me when I turned 12.

"Thank you, it's lovely." I say, and hug her. She tells me Finnick thought of the charm this year and so I thank him too. Finnick kisses Annie one more time and we enter the train, and head for District 2. I sit on the couch while Finnick gets some ice cream, and I look at my bracelet.

I remember when I first got it. It was my first birthday away from 2, and I was feeling pretty bad. It was raining, and I was looking out the window, looking at the raindrops on the window. Finnick burst through the door and took off his raincoat. I remember Annie coming in behind him, dripping wet as well. She smiled at me and handed me a black box with a red ribbon on it. I looked at her, and didn't get the box. Finnick laughed at me and said, "This is Annie. I'm sorry I didn't introduce her to you sooner. I was so concentrated on training you I completely forgot to do it."

I slowly take the box and open it. I remember smiling at it when I first saw it. It was gold, and there was a small cupcake on it. "How'd you know I liked baking?" I asked Annie, and she looked at Finnick. "It's from both of us. We'll both give you a charm on your birthday, starting today." She said, and walked closer to me. She hugged me, and I hugged her back. "Thank you." I told her, and turned to Finnick and said thanks as well.

I have six charms now, a cupcake, a knife, a fish, a heart, a starfish and now, a mermaid. I love this bracelet because it symbolizes my time here in District 4, it doesn't make that much sound when I walk, and mostly because it doesn't bother me when I fight, since it doesn't jiggle as much as I thought it would. Finnick hands me chocolate ice cream on a cone and sits down across me. He looks at me and then says, "What're you thinking about, Liv?"

"How weird it's going to be. I mean, I haven't been there in almost 7 years, Finn. And what if people don't remember me?" I say.

"Well, you do look pretty different. You got taller. And thinner, I guess, but you have more muscle. Your hair's longer and –" He begins, but I cut him off. "Okay, I get it. I look different."

"I was about to say that even though a lot has changed, your personality didn't. And your eyes, they're still blue-ish green." He says, and smiles at me. "Don't worry about it."

Just then, a loud shriek comes from the door behind me. I turn around and smile at the girl who just came through the door. It's Cynthia, my old escort. She looks a little older, and her hair is now black as night and her lips are red as blood. She's wearing a short, black dress and her red heels are sky-high.

"Wow, look at you!" She says and she walks towards me with her arms open. "Happy birthday!" She says as she hugs me. She gives me a box and walks towards Finnick. She pinches his cheek and says, "My, you have grown too!"

"Hey Cindy." He says and hugs her too. She sits down beside me and says, "Well, we'll be arriving in District 2 in 2 hours, so we'll arrive at 9." She turns to me and frowns.

"What?" I say, licking my ice cream.

"Are you going to wear that when you arrive?" She says, looking at my t-shirt, sweats and running shoes. "I mean, it must be extremely comfy but you look like you just came out of bed."

"I did just come out of bed." I say, and laugh. She frowns, pulls me up and turns to Finnick and says, "Excuse us. We need to get changed." I groan, grab my bag and follow her. She brings me to a room and tells me to bring out all my clothes. I do, but leave out the pajamas. She frowns and says, "Didn't you bring anything _fancy_?"

I laugh at her and grab some clothes and say, "How about I just change into something else and you tell me if it's okay, okay?" She nods and sits down on the bed. I go into the bathroom and change into my yellow dress, which hangs above my knees. I go out and grab my leather ankle boots and put them on. Cynthia looks at me like I'm crazy. "You look like a cowgirl." She says, and we laugh. "Well, it's either this or running shoes, or flip-flops. You pick."

"Well, lets see what other clothes you have." She looks through the clothes on the bed, and hands me some clothes. I remove the boots and walk into the bathroom. I remove my dress and change into the clothes she gave me. It's my dark green tank top, my plaid cardigan and my jean shorts. I come out once I'm changed and say, "I thought you didn't want me to look like a cowgirl."

"Well, it's the only thing that matches with your ankle boots. I don't even know why you brought them." She says.

"They're comfy." I say, and wear them. She helps me repack my things and then takes another look at me. "Almost." She says, and reaches into her purse. She takes out a gold tube and removes the cover. She turns the bottom and a something red pops out. She holds my chin with her other hand and moves to apply the red thing to my lips, but I move away.

"No lipstick." I say, and she frowns. She puts it back in her purse and takes out a gold compact case. "No make-up." I say and smile. She frowns at me again and we leave the room. When we get to the room where Finnick was, we sit in the same place.

"Weren't you eating vanilla ice cream?" I ask him, and he laughs. "This is my third ice cream." He says, and smiles. I reach into my bag grab my card deck, and Finnick finishes his ice cream so he can wash his hands. We play cards for the rest of the trip, but stop when Cynthia tells us she has something to tell us. I put back my cards and turn to her.

"You will be living with Cato." She says. Oh gosh, I completely forgot. I was so caught up in the thought of coming back that I forgot about him. _Cato_. I smile. I haven't seen him in forever. Or at least it feels like forever.

Cynthia interrupts my thoughts by standing up and looking out the window. "We're here!" She says and turns to me. "Ready?" She asks, and for once in my life I'm not sure of the answer.

"What are you so afraid about?" Finnick asks me once Cynthia leaves the room. I look out the window of the train and shrug. "Seriously, tell me." Finnick says as he comes up behind me. He stands beside me and looks at me.

"I don't know." I say, and then cross my arms. "I guess, I'm scared that they won't remember me, or they won't care anymore. Or what if they changed?"

"You're going to be fine. You're going home. Frankly, I would have been more scared going to 4 for the first time. You weren't that scared, right?" He says, and then smiles at me. I smile at him back, and then our train stops. It took a while for us to get to 2, but we surprisingly arrived on time. I grab my stuff and Finnick does the same. Since we took a Capitol train, some people were looking to see if someone important was arriving. _Nope_, I think. _Just me_. As the train stops, it makes the whistle sounds and now even more people look. Cynthia grabs my hand and leads me to the train door. Thankfully, the train station in 2 is indoors, so most of the people looking were just workers and people who want to ride the train.

Once the train door opens, I step out and immediately feel the cold air. Cynthia smiles at me and leads me out of the train station. I look back, and thankfully Finnick is right behind me. He smiles at me reassuringly and I look all around me. The train station looks exactly the same, which is weird because it's been 6 years since I was last year. I look at the people, and they look right back at me. I think they're trying to figure out who I am, since I must look a little familiar.

Just then, a few guards open the doors for Cynthia and she steps out. I stop moving, even though she is pulling me forward. I can't believe it, it's District 2. It looks a bit different, but a few things haven't changed. I feel a warm hand hold my free hand and pull me forward. It's Finnick, and when I look up at him he smiles at me. "C'mon." He says, and pulls me forward again. This time I walk out, the cold air engulfing me completely. It's still pretty warm though, since the sun is shining. I smile at the scenery in front of me. It's District 2, my home.

I feel Finnick and Cynthia pull me forward again, and we descend the steps of the train station. When we get to the bottom, I smile at the ground. It's gravelly, just like how I remember it. I feel thin, cold arms wrap around me and I look back up.

"I'm so sorry, I have to leave you. I was supposed to bring you to your house, but I got a message that I had to be in the Capitol soon. I assume you know how to go to Cato's house?" She asks and I nod. She gives me another hug and gives one to Finnick too, and then she leaves.

"Well, since we're walking, why don't you give me a tour of 2?" He asks, and I say, "Fine, but it's not my fault if we get lost. I haven't been here in like, 7 years." We walk around, and surprisingly I remember where everything was. I show him the Justice Building, the weaponry building, the market place and the shops around town. "I'm getting tired, wanna go to Cato's house already?" He asks once we get to a shop that sells beds. I laugh and say okay, and then I walk towards the village where Cato lived. While we're walking, I see a building I don't quite remember in the distance, but it looks vaguely familiar.

"I'm guessing that's their training area?" Finnick asks once we come nearer to it. "Oh, that's why it looked familiar. It looks like ours." I say, and just then a couple of students burst out the door shouting and smiling, and some are hugging each other. "Looks like they finally finished training." Finnick says, and we're about to turn around to go to Cato's house when something catches my eyes. Wait, no. Not something. Someone. I only catch a glimpse of him, but I'm guessing he saw me too, because now we're looking at each other.

My brain shuts off for a moment, and then comes back and tries to put together the pieces of the puzzle, and judging by the look on the boy's face, he's doing the same. Blond hair. Blue eyes. These look all to familiar, but they look so different on the boy I see in the distance. He's looking at me too, not fazed by the people jumping up and down celebrating around him.

It all feels like a movie, and it's all happens so slowly. The way he smiles, drops his bag, and how he starts to walk towards me. Slowly at first, as if unsure, but then he quickens his pace as he gets closer, obviously now sure of who I am. I do the same, dropping my bag and walking towards him, and I can hear Finnick in the distance. "Is that…?" He asks but doesn't continue his sentence, and I smile, but he can't see me because he's behind me.

At first I don't know if I'm smiling because it's exactly who Finnick thinks it is, or if I'm smiling because that person is now merely a few feet away from me. By this time, we're both running, and when we finally reach each other; we were running so fast that when he hugged he almost knocked me over, because of his momentum. He picks me up and tightens his grip around me and I tighten mine too, and he spins me around. We both laugh and stay in that hug for a while. I bury my face in his chest and he puts his head on my shoulder, and for a moment I think my shoulder is getting damp, but I shake the thought away. I can hear people cheering him on in the distance, probably his friends, but he ignores them and so do I.

When we finally pull away, he looks at me, smiles, and then hugs me again. I laugh and say, "You're crushing me." We pull away again and I see his eyes are shiny. _Maybe he did cry a little after all_, I think, and smile. He's changed so much, not just physically. He puts his hands on my shoulders and looks at me, and then says, "I–I don't know what to say. It's been so long. How are you?"

"I–I… Ca–Cato?" I say, but it's barely audible, because I can't speak. I feel like my voice sank down to my feet and I can't get it back up to my throat. I try to speak again, but nothing comes out of my mouth. He seems to sense this and so he laughs and pulls me into another hug. I soon feel someone tap my shoulder and when I turn around, Finnick is standing there.

"Hi." He says, and waves at Cato. I see Cato's face change from a smile to a frown. "Is he your boyfr…?" He says, but doesn't finish his sentence.

"Yeah, we're dating." I say, and Cato's hands drop from my waist and shoulder and he sticks them in his pockets. He looks down at the ground but looks back up again once he hears Finnick and me laughing. "We're just kidding, Cato." We both say at the same time, and we laugh. "He's my trainer." I say, and Cato smiles again, blushes and holds my hand.


	7. Chapter 7

As I enter my old room, I notice that it all looks the same. They didn't change anything; they just left it as it is. My covers are the same, my carpets are the same, and even that dent I made in the wall is the same. I leave my stuff on my bed and walk towards the dent. I touch it and remember how I made it.

I was wrestling with Cato, and he had me in a pin. I got off and pinned him to the wall, but I accidentally hit his head on the wall too hard, and it dented the wall, and he fell down. To this day I don't know why his head dented the wall, and not the other way around. I smile, and I hear a knock on the door. "I remember that day." Cato says as he leans on the doorframe. I giggle and say, "How'd your head dent this?" He shrugs says, "You're the one who pushed me."

"You're the one who couldn't hold me in a pin for more than 5 seconds." I say, taunting him. "Whatever. I gave you a chance, I didn't want you to feel bad." He says, and walks closer.

"Yeah, right." I scoff. "What? You think you can beat me? I'm like twice your size and weight." He says, and I say, "We'll have to see about that." I pretend to stretch and he raises his eyebrows at me and grins. "Seriously? I don't want to injure you on your first day back."

"What's the matter, Cato? Afraid to hit a girl? Or afraid that she might beat you?" I taunt, and his grin drops. He saunters over to me and just stands there for a moment, and I look at him. "What?" I say, looking at his blank expressions. He smiles again and pins me to the wall. I laugh and say, "Not fair, you didn't say go." I knee him in his stomach and run to the other side of my room. He smirks at me and says, "Always be prepared." I laugh and he runs towards me, and grabs me by my hips. He throws me on the bed, but I bounce off and hit the wall beside it. "So now you're my teacher?" I ask, and get up. He throws his head back and laughs, and I run behind him and put him in a headlock. He stays like that for a while, unable to move, but then he bends forward and reaches behind him, throwing me on the bed again. I get up and grab his legs, making him fall on his chest. His hands catch his fall though, and he spins around so he's on his back, and lifts his legs and grabs me. He spins again and pins me and then says, "Might as well give up now." I smile at him and say, "Not yet."

I twist the hand he was using to pin my arms down with my hand, and he when he lets go, I hit him in the side and he rolls off of me. I take this as an opportunity to pin him down, and when I'm on top of him, I smirk at him, but he just glares at me.

"Time for dinner." Finnick says as he walks into my room, and when he sees us he says, "Well, I hope I didn't interrupt anything." He laughs and leaves, and Cato spins and pins me down, since I was distracted. He laughs and gets off me, and helps me up.

When we're walking out, I trip him and he says, "Still can't accept defeat I see." He laughs but I just glare at him, which makes him laugh even harder. He reaches done and holds my hand, and then we walk downstairs.

"There you are!" Isabelle, Cato's mom says as we walk into the kitchen. She runs up to me and hugs me, and then says, "Happy birthday!" I thank her and then Peter, Cato's dad comes up to me and hugs me.

"You look so different." He says, and I smile at him. "You too." I say, and I point at his gray hair. He glares at me, but then laughs and ruffles my hair. We all sit down for dinner, and then they ask me how life is in 4.

"It's great. I mean, I've been living with Finnick for like, 6 years already, so yeah, it's really fun." I say, and then Isabelle stands up and gets something out of the fridge. Peter stands up too, and dims the lights.

At first it's quiet, but then I hear Isabelle's voice from where she's standing. "Happy birthday to you…" She starts to sing, and I laugh.

"Aw, you didn't have to." I say, but they all continue singing. Finnick and Cato even join in, and Isabelle walks towards me with the cake. She puts it on the table, and we all sit down again, except Peter, because he's by the lights.

"Make a wish." Cato says once they finish singing, and I close my eyes and cross my fingers before thinking, _I wish I would always be this happy_. I blow out my candles and then Peter turns on the lights. Isabelle stands up again and grabs a few small plates and knives, and lets me cut the first piece of cake. I serve Cato first, but I almost accidentally dropped his cake, but he caught it with his hands, and put it on his plate. We all laugh at him, and he puts his icing-covered hands on my face and I laugh even harder.

"Gross!" I say, and wipe it off and on his face. He sticks his tongue out and grabs the knife from me and says, "This is why no one ever let you serve." We all laugh and he serves everyone else cake.

It's chocolate with vanilla and caramel icing, my favorite. It's really yummy, so I help myself to a second round. When I finish, Finnick jokes about how fat I'm going to get while I'm here. I glare at him and they all laugh at me. I laugh too after a while, and smile at everyone. I'm glad to be back.

Just then, Isabelle turns to Finnick and says, "I remember watching your Games a few years back. You're really good with that trident. Have you taught Olivia that? You're really tough."

He nods, laughs and says, "Yeah, I guess so. I'm still here, after all."

"You know, Cato's thinking of volunteering this year. It is his last year, after all." Peter says, and my mouth almost drops open. I look to my right, where he's sitting, and I narrow my eyes at him. He knows how much I hate the Games, and even though he's trained for it his whole life, I can't believe he would want to volunteer.

"Excuse me, I'm stuffed. Thanks for the cake, it's really good." I say, and put my dishes in the sink. I walk out of the kitchen and I hear someone go, "That's my cue. Sorry everyone."

I hear footsteps follow me as I enter my room and sit on my bed. When I look up, Finnick's standing by my door, leaning on the doorframe. "You know, it's not his fault. He just wants to bring pride to his District. Trust me, I would know. The Tributes from 2 from my year kept talking about how it was implanted in their minds that they _had_ to win and that they would kill anyone who stood in their way, because they wanted to make their District proud. It's really not his fault, Olivia."

I nod, but I can tell he knows that I'm just nodding so he'll go away. "He has time to think about it anyways, not like it's tomorrow or anything."

"Yeah, totally." I scoff. "The Reaping's the day after tomorrow, Finn. He's probably been thinking about this for how many years, and he's not going to change his mind in a day. Trust me, I know him. He's not going to." I say, but then say, "Sorry. Didn't mean to snap at you. I'm really tired, see you tomorrow."

I stand up and walk towards him and hug him, and he hugs back. "Everything will be okay. Even if he does volunteer, he's a strong kid. He'll come back."

"It's not the actual Games I'm worried about. He'll make it through; he has to. It's the aftermath I'm worried about." I whisper, and he nods. He walks away and goes back into the kitchen, probably to help with the dishes. I feel guilty for a while, because I'm not helping out, but hopefully they understand that I'm too mad to do anything. I'm about to close the door when Cato stops the door with his foot.

"Olivia." He says, but I just say, "I'm going to bed, Cato." I hear him sigh, and hear him step forward, but then he steps back and closes the door behind him. When I'm sure that he's gone, I change into my pajamas and crawl into bed.

"Olivia?" A familiar voice creeps into my room and adds, "I'm sorry." I pretend to sleep, just like I did 6 years ago to the same exact person. He laughs, and says, "I know you're awake."

I turn around to face him, and he crawls into my bed and under my covers. He leans his head on his hand, and I do the same, so we're face-to-face. "What?" I finally say, and he says, "I'm sorry."

I sit up and look back at him, and he lies down with his hands behind his head. "Sorry for what? For not telling me that you were volunteering? Or for breaking your promise? You promised me that you would never volunteer, Cato. You know how much I hate these Games." I say, and push the covers off of me, and stand up. I get off my bed and start walking towards the door, but I trip on the rug and fall on my nose. Cato jumps up and runs towards me, and then kneels down to hug me. "Are you okay?" He says, but I can tell that he's trying not to laugh.

I remove my hand from my nose for a second to hit him in the chest, but this only makes him laugh harder. "Don't laugh at me." I say, and look up at him, and I can tell that he's really trying not to laugh.

"I'm not laughing at you." He says, but then lets out a little laugh. I push myself away from him and try to stand up, but then I stumble and he catches me. "No, don't move. You're injured." He says, and chuckles a little. I hit him in the chest again, but then let out a little laugh myself, and then I pout.

"Aw, don't cry." He says, and carries me out the door. He brings me to the kitchen and helps me sit down on the chair, and grabs some ice, and then hands them to me. "Go away." I say as he sits down, and he puts his hands up in defense. "Hey, I just saved your life. You never know how fatal a nose injury can be." He says, and laughs and then sits back down. "You okay?" He asks seriously, and I nod.

"You're cute when you're mad." He says, and looks down at the floor. "Whatever." Is all I can think of to say, and then Isabelle comes in, and looks at me. "What happened?" She asks, and I say, "Cato hit me."

He playfully pushes my shoulder and say, "Hey, I didn't!" Isabelle laughs and motions for me to hand over the ice. I do, and she takes a look at my nose. "Well, you didn't break it, but you need to keep the ice on it." She hands the ice back to me and starts making her coffee. "What happened?" She asks again, and Cato says, "She tripped." I giggle a little, and then Cato laughs. "It's still early, go back to bed." Isabelle says, and then I say, "What time is it?"

"5 am." She says, and pours herself some coffee. "You woke me up at 5?" I say, and narrow my eyes at Cato, who says, "I got lonely." Isabelle laughs and Cato picks me up again and sets me on his shoulder, and I rest my elbows on his back. "Bye, mom." He says, and I wave at her.

He carries me back to my room and throws me on the bed, and I laugh. I crawl back into bed and he does the same, and then he leans his head on his hand and looks at me. "Do you forgive me?" He asks, and bites his lip, and I move closer to him, and I put my head beside his elbow.

"Maybe." I say, and look up at him. I didn't really notice how close our faces were to each other until he looks down at me, and stares into my eyes. I stare back into his and say, "Why are you volunteering anyways?" He looks away and shrugs, and then says, "If I don't I'll become a Peacekeeper, and then they'll ship me to God knows where." I nod, and then say, "Well, then I guess I forgive you."

He smiles and leans down, and I put my head on his arm. "Night." He says, and I let out a little laugh. "Night." I reply, and then I fall asleep in his arms. When I wake up, Cato's gone, and I can't help but think if it was a dream.

It wasn't though, because when I touch my nose it hurts like hell, but when I reach for my ice pack, it's gone. I sit up and rub my eyes, and then Cato comes in my room. "Hey, sleepyhead." He says, and sits down beside me, and then hands me another ice pack. "Thought you might want that." He says, and I laugh. "I woke up and saw that yours was melted, so I went to the kitchen and replaced it." He adds, and I say, "What time is it?"

He lifts his sleeve and looks at his bare wrist and says, "I don't know." I laugh at him and he laughs too, and then stands up. He offers me his hand and then says, "Unless you want me to carry you."

"No, that's fine." I laugh, and then we walk down to get some breakfast. "You know, even though I forgive you for wanting to volunteer and not telling me about it, I'm still not okay with it." I say, and before he can say anything we walk into the kitchen and Peter gives us each a plate of food, and then Finnick comes in.

He hugs me from behind but I push him away and say, "Why are you so sweaty?" He grins and gets some food, and then sits down beside me.

"Nice nose." He teases, and I cover it with my hands. "What happened?" I shout, and they all laugh. "Seriously? Is it like, deformed?" I say, and Finnick shakes his head.

"Nah." He says, and I hit him in the shoulder. I narrow my eyes at him and continue eating breakfast. When I finish, I put my dishes in the sink and Cato does the same. We're about to leave when Isabelle says, "Nope. Cato, it's your turn."

He groans and walks towards the sink, and I follow him. "I'll dry." I say, and he smiles. Finnick finishes his food and goes to take a shower, and Isabelle and Peter leave, so it's just Cato and me.

"What do you mean you're still not okay with it?" He asks once he's sure no one's around. I shrug as he passes me a plate and I start to wipe it. "If I had a choice, I still wouldn't want you to go." I say, and put the plate in the cupboard.

"What, you think I'll die out there?" He asks, and sounds offended. I shake my head and dry the plate he just gave me. "No, I know you can win. You will, I know it. It's just… The Games really change people, you know? And sometimes you can't change back, no matter how strong you are. I just don't want that to happen. I lost you once, I don't want to lose you again." I say, and he hands me another plate. He nods, and we decide not to talk about now.

"I got this one." He says as he shuts off the water and gets the towel from me. I lift myself up on the island counter and cross my legs, and then rest my head on my knuckles and look at him.

"You look the same." I say, and he raises an eyebrow at me. "Yeah, I was going to say the same thing, but since you fell, you look kind of different now." He says, and I scowl at him.

"I'm just kidding. You do look different, though." He says, and I raise my eyebrow at him. "Really?" I ask, and he nods as he puts the rest of the plates in the cupboard. He leans on the counter and looks at me. "I don't know, you just do." He says, and smiles. He stands up straight and holds out his hand. "Where are we going?" I ask as I take it, and he leads me into me room. "Get changed." He says, and I ask, "To what?"

"Something you can fight in." He grins and shuts the door. I quickly grab my sweats, a sports bra, socks and my running shoes, and then I change. I don't really have a shirt I can fight in, so I go to Cato's room and knock. "Do you have a shirt I can borrow?" I ask, and I forgot that I wasn't wearing one at the moment, so I cross my arms against my stomach. He laughs and goes into his room, and throws me one.

"It's the smallest one I've got." He says, and I go back to my room. I wear it and grab my old duffel bag, and then stuff my sweater, running shorts, and my empty water bottle inside. I go out and then tie my hair as I go down.

"Hey." Cato says as he comes bouncing down the stairs. He tosses me his bottle and I fill it, and then I do the same with mine. I toss it back to him and then he puts it in his bag and holds out his hand. I take it and say, "Where are we going?"

He smiles and says, "You'll see." We tells me to close my eyes and we leads me to some place. "Okay, open." He says, but I can't see anything. "It's dark." I say, and he laughs. He hits the lights and my jaw almost drops. "A bike?" I say, and he walks excitedly to you.

"Dad got it for me for my birthday." He says, and hands me a helmet. "Do you know how to drive?" I ask and get on behind him. He puts the keys in and jokingly says, "No, not at all. That's why I asked you to ride with me."

I laugh and then we drive away. "Where are we going?" I shout over the load roar of the engine. "You'll see." He shouts back a few seconds later.

"Close your eyes." He says and I do, and then the bike suddenly stops. I hear him shut off the engine and get off, and then I feel a hand on my shoulder. "Careful." He says, and helps me off of the bike.

"Don't open them yet." He says, and I nod. I hear a light switch open and hear it echo through out the place we're in. "Okay, open." He says, and I do.

"Where are we?" I laugh and look at him. "We're at the old training center." He says, and holds my hand as we walk through it. "The one where we…?" I say, but I don't need to finish my sentence because Cato laughs. "Yeah, that one." He says, and I laugh too.

This was the place where I first kissed Cato. We were about 7, and we came here after breakfast, for training. During breakfast, we saw Isabelle kissing Peter, and we both thought it was weird, because at the time we didn't know what they were doing. "What's he doing to her face?" I remember me whispering that to Cato, and he shrugged. We both grabbed our stuff and walked to the training center, and since we were the first ones there we decided to just sit down and wait.

"What do you think they were doing?" Cato asked me once we sat down. I shrugged and took a sit of water and then he said, "What if it's magic that can make you stronger?"

I thought about it for a while and then said, "You really think so?" He got up on his knees and said, "Yeah, I think so. Every time they do that they always seem happier, meaning they must be getting stronger, right?"

"Fine." I say, and kneeled down too. "On three." I said, and closed my eyes. "On three." He repeats, and then I say, "One."

"Two."

"Three." We say at the same time, and then I leaned in and he did too, and then we kissed. "Did it work?" I asked, and he smiled at me. "I think so."

"How do you know?" I asked again, and then he stood up, because some of the trainers came in, but they didn't see. "I don't know. Maybe we'll find out in training." He said to me, and I only found out that he was kidding a few weeks later.

"I still can't believe you believed me." He says as he tosses me a spear.

"Whatever. I was 6! You practically believe everything everyone tells you at that age." I say, and throw a spear at a dummy a couple of feet away. "Nice one." He says, and throws one too.

"Whatever. Not like it was my first one anyways." I say and throw a spear. Cato coughs and says, "Seriously?" I laugh at him and say, "Dude, seriously? I was 6. I wouldn't have had my first kiss before that." He laughs too and says, "Whatever."

"Wanna see what Finnick taught me?" I ask, and he smiles at me. "Sure." He says, and we walk over to the tridents station. "Why are all the dummies so dusty?" I ask, and he shrugs. "This place hasn't been used in years."

"Are we even allowed in here?" I ask, and he shakes his head. "Seriously, Cato? Bringing me to some place illegal?" I say, and he laughs. "Loosen up. Of course we're allowed in here."

I laugh and then I grab a trident and ask, "Ever learn how to use one of these?" He shakes his head and says, "I concentrated more on the swords and stuff like that. I know how to use a spear though."

"They're completely different." I say, and he raises his eyebrow at me. "Yeah, I know, right? It's so weird." I teach him how to use it, and once he gets the hang of it, I show him the trick Finnick taught me.

"Okay, check this out." I say, and throw the trident, except it spins on it's way to the dummy. "Wow, how'd you do that?" He asks, and I teach him. "I think I got it." He says and throws the trident, except it doesn't spin. I laugh and then show him the proper release.

"It's like this…" I say, and throw the trident. Just as I release it, I hear a trident drop, except it's not mine. I turn to face Cato and almost jump back because he's now right beside me. He lights up the back of my shirt and says, "What happened?" I pull my shirt back down and say, "Nothing. How'd you see that?"

"When you threw the trident the back of your shirt went up and I saw it. What happened?" He asks again, but I shake my head and cross my arms. "Nothing." I say, and go to get another trident. "Uh, no. Something obviously happened. Things like that don't just come from training, and I should know. I probably have the most scars out of everyone in training." He says, and lifts up his shirt to show me all of his scars. "Now what happened?" He asks as he walks towards me again.

"Just training. Trust me, I'm fine." I say, and walk over to where he was standing a few seconds ago.

"When did we decide to lie to each other?" He asks bitterly and walks over to the punching bags, and starts punching really loudly. I throw the trident and when it sticks itself in the dummy, I walk over to where Cato is standing.

"Cato." I say, but he ignores me, so I sigh and say, "My dad." This makes him stop, and he holds the punching bag in place and looks at me. "It was right after I got back from the hospital, after the accident." I say, and look down. "I just came home, and then I went to my dad's room, thinking he'd be happy to see me."

"Only he wasn't. When I entered the room he was surrounded by bottles and he was holding one, and it was almost empty. I walked up to him and hugged him, but he hit me on the head with his bottle and it broke." I say, and bite my lip. "Then he took a really big piece and dragged it along my side, and made a really, really, deep cut."

"I haven't told anyone because I didn't want them to worry about me. And I never told you because I knew you'd get mad." I say, and look up at him. "And now you're mad." He opens his mouth as if he's going to say something, but then closes it and shakes his head. "No, I'm not. I just wish you'd told me before." He says, and holds my hand. "Are you okay?"

I nod and say, "Yeah. It's just that I haven't told anyone that. Like, anyone. People have seen it, but I've always told them that it was from training." He nods, and says, "Cuts that deep don't come from training."

"I know." I say, and force myself to smile. Cato's pocket beeps and he takes his phone out of it, and says, "Time for lunch. Let's go home." I nod and grab my stuff, and we walk towards his bike.

"I didn't know we took that long." I say, and he laughs. "Time flies when you're having fun, right? We can go back after lunch." He says, and we get on his bike and go home.


	8. Chapter 8

**Wow, I'm so sorry I haven't updated in forever. I transfered to a new school this fall for high school, and I've been really occupied with all the work and stuff. I'll try to update more often, and maybe even start new stories? Heehee, I'm so excited for November 22, I can't control my emotions akjsndflas. HAHHAHA, so yeah, sorry I haven't updated in 1094193182 years. Read & review, please! I read everything and it really means a lot. :)**

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><p>"So it's the Reaping tomorrow?" I ask quietly once we finish lunch and walk back to the training center. He slowly nods, and slowly interlaces our fingers together. "I'm sorry."<p>

I nod, and we reach the training center. We put our bags on the bleachers and walk towards the hand-to-hand combat station, and take our positions.

"Look, before we start, we should probably talk about a tap out signal. So if I hurt you–" He begins, but I knock him down and pin him.

"If _you_ hurt me?" I taunt, and he smiles. He jerks his leg away and hits me in the side, and I stumble, but only a little. He takes this as an opportunity to get me off of him though, and he jumps up and I do too. We circle each other for a moment, but then Cato lunges towards me and pins me down, but I knee him in the stomach and hit him in the neck, and he falls off me. I get on top of him and raise my fist, but when I'm about to punch him, he grabs my fist and slams it on the ground beside his head, and twist my hand. He wraps his legs around my hips and pulls me down, but pushes me up with his hands on my shoulders. I feel a pain on my back so I twist, but it's no use.

"Give up?" He taunts, but I shake my head. He pulls me down and pushes me up harder this time, and I bend my head in and hit him in the throat, which makes him gag. He lets go for a second, but I stretch my arms and legs and elbow him in the gut, and he rolls over on him stomach, and I sit on his back and wrap my arms around his neck, and he claws at my skin.

"Give up?" I say, imitating his voice. He laughs and says, "I don't sound like that." I laugh too and say, "No, you do. Your voice is really high for a boy."

He twist his hips and knees me in the stomach, and my grip loosens, so he grabs one of my arms and stands up, and he pulls me up too.

He twists my hand, and puts his palm on my elbow, and pushes it forward. He pushes it more, and the bone starts to hurt so I step on his foot and twist around, and punch him in his chin, and he stumbles back. I run toward him and jump, placing my hands on his thighs and my feet around his neck. I bend forward and flip him, so he falls down on the floor, back first.

"How'd you do that?" He asks, while trying to catch his breath. "I'm like, three times your weight." He laughs, and I do too.

"I don't know. Finnick taught me how to do it." I say, and he stands up. "So what's the deal between you two anyways?" He says, and I walk towards our bags. I open mine and get out my water bottle, and then say, "What do you mean?"

"You guys seem so…" He says, and then finally adds, "Close." I shrug and then say, "We're like family, you know. Live with someone for a long time and you get close to them. Like us." I put back my water bottle and touch the wall in front of me. From afar it looks really clean, but it's actually really dusty.

"Like us?" He asks, and I look back at him and nod. "So we're just… Family?" He asks, and walks closer to me. "I guess so." I say, still examining the wall. "Just family." He whispers to no one in particular. "Are you sure?" He asks, and puts his hand on my waist, and whispers in my ear, "Is that all we are?"

I turn to look at him, and he puts his hand up on the wall, and leans closer to me. I run my fingers along the strings of his hoodie, avoiding his eyes. I see him look down at me and he brings his other hand to my chin, lifting it up so my eyes meet his. I swallow and say, "Is that all you want to be?"

He smiles at me sheepishly and leans in closer, so our eyes are right in front of each other. "I missed you." He says, and puts his lips on mine, and I remember when we did this all those years ago. Those days seem so far away. In fact, everything right now seems so far away, because all I'm thinking about is this moment right here, right now.

He pulls away for a moment, and stares into my eyes. "Race you back home?" He asks, and grabs his bag. I grab mine and we run out the door. Since he got a head start, he won by a couple seconds. When we reach the front door, he opens it and holds my hand going up the stairs. When we get to my door, he kisses me one more time, and I go into my room. I shower, change and then head downstairs, where everyone is sitting down and laughing. We eat dinner, and when we finish, Finnick helps Isabelle do the dishes. I'm about to walk up the stairs when Cato grabs my hand and pulls me out the backdoor, and to the garden. We lie down on the grass and stare at the stars in silence for a while, and then Cato rolls over on his side, facing me. He puts his head on his hand, and uses his other one to brush a strand of hair out of my face. I face him, and he smiles at me.

"Do you really not want me to volunteer?" He asks, and bites his lip. He rolls back down on his back and puts his hand over his hands, and I lay my head on his chest. "Mhmm." I say, and I feel him nod. "Then I won't." He says after a minute, and I smile.

"Thank you." I say, and he puts his hand around me, and we lie there for a few minutes, just staring at the stars. I'm about to drift off to sleep when I hear a knock on the door, and Cato and I sit up.

"Got something for you." Finnick says, and holds up an envelope. I stand up and brush some grass off of me, and walk towards him. It's a letter from the Capitol, so I tell Cato I have to go upstairs. He nods, and follows me inside. I walk up the stairs to my room and close the door. It's a letter from my dad, and I frown when I finish reading the letter.

"Dearest Olivia, there will be a train coming for you tonight, and it will bring you to the Capitol. You will live with me for a few days, and I hope you brought enough clothes with you. If not, we can send some people to get them for you. I regret to inform you that Finnick will not be going with you, because he has to do something for me. See you soon. Sincerely, Dad." It says, and I crumple it and throw it in the bin.

I walk downstairs and find Finnick sitting down on the couch, watching TV. I sit down beside him and stare at the TV, and he looks at me.

"What'd it say?" He asks, and I slowly turn to him. "He wants me to go back." I say, and he shrugs. "What's wrong with 4?" He asks, and I shake my head.

"Back to the Capitol, Finnick. He wants me to come back, and this time you can't come." I say, and he raises an eyebrow. "Why not?" He asks, and I say, "He wants you to do something for him. You know, _that_ thing."

He realizes that I mean my dad wants to sell him again, and nods. "Okay." He says quietly, and shuts off the TV. It's dark, since the lights aren't on. It takes a while for my eyes to adjust to the darkness, and I hear Finnick stand up.

"When do we leave?" He asks, and I tell him tonight, at 10. It's now 8, so we have two hours to get ready. He walks to his room and I do too, and I start packing. It takes me a short while to finish, since I didn't bring that much stuff. When I finish, I quietly go out of my room and knock on Cato's door, which is ajar. He's lying down in bed, which is weird because it's actually pretty early.

"Cato?" I say, and lean on his bedpost. He says something I can't quite understand, but then he lifts up the corner of his covers, and I crawl in beside him. "You're sleeping early." I say, and he lets out a small laugh.

"Fighting you is very tiring." He says, and I look up at him. He smiles, but then it fades when he sees that I have something on my mind. "What's wrong?" He asks as I bite my lip.

"My dad wants me to go back to the Capitol." I say, and he furrows his brow. "Why? You just got here." He says, and I shrug. "I don't know, but I have to be at the train station by 10."

He nods and kisses the top of my head, and then says, "What time is it?" I tell him it's 8:30, and he says, "What do you want to do until 10?"

"Stay with you." I say, and he smiles. He reaches for his phone and sets an alarm for 9:30, and then we don't really do anything after that except lie in each other's arms and talk.

When his phone beeps, I sit up and he does too. "I don't want to leave." I say, and he shakes his head. "I don't want you to, but you have to. When are you coming back?"

I shrug and look down at my hands, and then he holds them in his and I look up at him. He smiles and I kiss him in the cheek. I stand up and get off his bed, but then he grabs my hand and pulls me back. He's kneeling on the side of his bed and I'm standing right in front of him, and he puts his hand on my cheek and pulls me in closer. He puts his lips to mine, and I can feel his smile growing. I put my hand on the back of his neck, and I play with his hair, and he puts his hand on my waist. We pull away for a second, and he asks if he can bring me to the train station.

"If you do, I don't think I'll be able to leave you." I say, and he nods and holds my hand. We kiss one more time, and then I smile at him, and turn away. I slowly let go of his hand, and walk out the door. I keep myself from looking back, because if I do I know I'll just want to stay with him, and I don't want to make this any harder than it is. Why did I have to leave so suddenly? I just arrived. I don't want to leave, I want to stay here.

I walk into my room and grab my bag, and walk down the stairs to the door, where Finnick is waiting. He smiles at me and grabs his bag from the floor, and we walk out the door and into the car waiting outside for us. The car brings us to the train station and we enter the train. Cynthia's there, but she knows that I feel bad so she doesn't say that much. I enter my room and put my bag on the chair, and then sit on the bed and look out the window. I watch as District 2 slips away from me, and sadly, Cato too. I lie down on my bed and sleep, and Cynthia wakes me up a few hours later to tell me we're here already.

"Good morning!" She says as she opens my curtains and hands me a pair of clothes. "I picked them out for you already." She says, and I smile. I'm still wearing my clothes from yesterday, so I decide to shower and I change into a small, turquoise dress. I put my hair into a herringbone braid, and walk out the door. I pack up my things and notice how there are gray pumps on the floor and a small gray belt on my bed. I put the belt in the small belt loops of my dress at my waist, and slip on the shoes. I walk out the door and eat breakfast, and then Cynthia smiles and says I look nice.

"Whose clothes are these?" I ask, and she says they're hers, but they don't fit anymore so I could have them. "Thank you." I say, and she smiles at me. The train comes to a stop and Finnick comes out of his room wearing a tux.

"Why are we so dressed up?" I ask Cynthia and she laughs and says, "You have to be. You're in the Capitol!" An Avox opens the door and we walk out as she says that, and I realize how Finnick and I are not actually dressed up. Compared to everyone else, we're actually dressed down.


End file.
